A Tangled Web Pt. 2: What Would You Like On Your C
by ordinaryguy2
Summary: The Borg invade Coruscant so Q seeks help from Buffy, The Six-Million Dollar Man, The Bionic Woman, and the Greatest American Hero.


A TANGLED WEB Part 2: WHAT WOULD YOU LIKE ON YOUR CORUSCANT?

By Charlie I do not own any of the characters written in this story. All major characters are owned by rich corporations and I am just borrowing them. Also, I am making no money by writing this story. I write this for the fun of it as well as to better my creative instinct and grammatical skills.

Classification: Crossover

I think I should explain that part of what I am trying to do with this story is to mix as many storylines together as possible and still make it interesting and true to the characters. The challenge to myself is to effectively blend some old sci-fi with some new sci-fi shows.

This story will include many crossovers starting with Doctor Who, Sliders and Star Trek. Star Trek will always be the main contributor in these stories. Also staring Buffy the Vampire Slayer, The Six Million-Dollar Man, The Bionic Woman, Star Wars and the Greatest American Hero. If anyone is unfamiliar with these shows I recommend that they look them up on the Internet. It will help and the information is out there on them.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer: One girl in every generation in endowed in the skill and strength to fight vampires and other creatures of darkness, currently this trust has fallen onto Buffy. Xander is her friend, ally and quite often the comic relief. Spike is a rather nasty vampire who currently is unable to harm anyone without causing himself severe pain thanks to a computer chip the military implanted in his brain.

The Six Million Dollar Man & The Bionic Woman: Col. Steve Austin, an astronaut (not the wrestler), crash-landed. The government took what remained of Austin's living body and attached experimental cybernetic legs, right arm and eye. Austin became the government's first cyborg secret agent. A few years later Steve's childhood love, Jamie Sommers, had a bad parachute accident. With some coaxing, Jamie had received a similar treatment with replacement legs, right arm and an ear. Years later the two agents finally became married.

The Greatest American Hero: Ultra-conservative FBI agent Bill Maxwell and Super-liberal school teacher Ralph Hinkley have a close encounter with a UFO in 1981. Aliens with Earth's best interest at heart give Hinkley a red suit that would endow him with super powers when worn and instruct Maxwell to be his guiding partner. Unfortunately Ralph lost the instructions for the suit before he read them. Putting their differences aside they use the powers of the suit to secretly help when nothing else seems to work.

Star Wars: Everybody knows Star Wars. For this story I am not using any of the characters but a few dozen Stormtroopers and the planet Corsucant, the main political planet in the Star Wars universe.

I will try to make everything clear and interesting as possible. Please send e-mail with advice on how to better my writing style and story.

Sidenote: Love the reviews. Keep them coming. And please give some ideas on what you might want to see. It just might happen.

Warning: There will be some character deaths.

A TANGLED WEB Part 2: WHAT WOULD YOU LIKE ON YOUR CORUSCANT?

By Charlie Bar

**Deep Space Nine**

**Currently orbiting Earth**

A large reddish energy ball filled with hundreds of small white balls filled the space before him. He watched as the smaller white balls randomly moved in and out of his view while they twirled around as if being blown by an unseen wind. "What is this for?" asked Q.

"Don't worry so. All you have to do here is just reach in and grab one of the white balls."

"Why?"

Q2 just continued as if Q hadn't even said anything. "Each ball represents an alternate Earth that has been successfully trespassed by the Borg." Seeing the questioning looks amongst the audience Q2 added a side note. "The unsuccessful attempts were basically due to landing in volcanoes, leaping into nuclear wars, having a planet-destroying asteroid vaporizing them before they landed or after. Yadda, yadda, yadda."

For Q the world around him seem to slow as he watched the balls float around. Finally, he turned to Q2. "I can't tell anything about them."

"I know. That's how this is supposed to work. Your powers cannot distinguish between them. It's a random selection. Now pick one."

Q sighed and everyone in the audience held their breath. Finally Q just thrust his arm into the red sphere and grabbed one of the white balls. Pulling out the little ball he took a closer look at it but still could not see how it was any different than the other balls still in the energy sphere.

"I'll take that," said Q2 as he took the ball away from Q. Upon looking at it a little closer, Q2 chuckled. "I'd move fast on this one, Q. This particular alternate world is one the Borg would consider a delicacy. Very advanced."

"Well, do I get to see it?"

"But of course," he replied as he tossed the little white ball into the large red energy sphere. Almost immediately the energy sphere lost its red coloring and took on the likeness of the planet the little white ball had represented. "Behold, Coruscant. A planet covered completely by one towering city. The city, by the way, is used to govern thousands of the planets in its Galaxy."

Q just shook his head. "Now what?"

"Now you pick your three team players and I'll choose mine. And remember once a person has been chosen they can't be used for a later time."

"Great," said Q with great sarcasm.

"Rom volunteers," came a voice from the upper walkway of the bar.

"Brother!"

"Quark, don't you dare!"

Looking up at the walkway Q could see the Ferengi known as Quark pushing his brother forward while a young Bajoran woman was trying to pull him back. With a wave of his hands Q teleported the three of them in a flash of light to right in front of the bar.

"Quark!" Captain Sisko's deep voice carried his displeasure at having the Ferengi stir up trouble.

"Just a minute, captain." Turning to Q, Quark immediately began his sales pitch. "Rom would be perfect for this. He is used to working with wide variety of complex machinery. Federation technology. Ferengi technology. Cardassian technology. Dominion technology. Most of the time he's just wasting time trying to figure out how to make the different parts work together. It's what he does best and he is also fast at it. And let's face it, that place sounds like it has lots of complex things that may need figuring out."

"No!" pleaded the Bajoran woman. "You're not taking my husband away! I just got him!"

Rom pulled his wife into a hug. "Leeta. Leeta. Quark's right. His intentions are way off," he murmured as he uncharacteristically cast his brother a look of rebuke, "but I probably am one of the most qualified." Stepping away from his wife he turned to Q. "I volunteer, your Q-ness."

Q looked him up and down. This was not the typical Ferengi. "This isn't exactly a volunteer operation at this point."

"Oh," was all Rom could say feeling very relieved.

"But this time I will accept."

"Oh," was all Rom could come up with again.

"Come on, Rom," piped Quark happily, "let's get all the tools you think you'll need."

"Oh, Quark?"

"Huh?" Quark turned to find Q2 right in front of him.

"I realize the concern you must have for your brother just now so I have come to the conclusion that I will send you along with him to watch out for him." Q2 smiled. "After all, that is what big brothers are for, right?"

"Huh?" Quark had the Ferengi-watching-profits-go-down-the-drain look plastered on his face.

Q2 turned back to Q. "Next?"

"I hate to use him so early but considering the technology and danger on Coruscant I had better. Data."

Data quickly stood up and walked over by Quark, Rom and Leeta. As the rest were being chosen Data whispered to Rom reminding him and Leeta that they should go gather whatever tools Rom thought he might need quickly. By the time they returned Q and Q2 had also chosen Dr. Pulaski, who had been a physician on the Enterprise for a short while as well as Tuvok and Ensign Vorik, the two Vulcans from Voyager.

"Well, let's get this show on the road, shall we?" spoke an eager Q2.

"It's about time," complained Q.

**Coruscant**

Courscant, seat of power for the galactic empire and residence of the emperor himself. The planet itself, covered almost completely in duracrete and plasteel, was one never ending skyline of buildings, where the wealthy and powerful lived on the uppermost levels, forcing the less fortunate and the mediocre to live below, as if to remind them physically of their place in society. Vagrants and impoverished lived further down still, along with the criminals that preyed on them. This was the lowest Captain Tsai had ever been in imperial city-until today.

About a standard hour ago, an Imperial monitoring station picked up some unusual activity. It was large, energy-based, and powerful, was all the station engineers could figure out. Fearing a rebel incursion, Captain Tsai had been ordered to take his squad and investigate. Then he was told how far down to almost the bedrock level. Well below were even hardened criminals, and stormtroopers, fear to go. Tsai had heard the rumors, de-evolved human cannibals, flesh eating moss, escaped science experiments gone horribly wrong and all sorts of other things to look forward to.

The empire almost never sent troops this far down, but after it was discovered that the Millennium Falcon had snuck into the capitol, dissolved the crime syndicate known as Black Sun by destroying the building of its leader, Prince Xisor, and escaped about three months ago, the emperor had instituted several "policy reforms". Captain Tsai and his squad had carried out several "reforms on lax officers.

As the turbolift slowed, Tsai brought his attention back to the present. As his men filled out, Tsai noticed that they immediately assumed defensive positions, expecting attack from any side. They must've heard the rumors too. "Specialist, do you have a bearing?" asked Tsai.

"Yes sir. About ten to twenty meters that way." responded the trooper as he pointed in the appropriate direction.

"Good. Squad move out." Tsai was glad for his helmet filter. Seeing the huge piles of garbage, the dank water, and the general decay made tsai think how horrid this place smell. The specialist at the front of the formation held up a fist. The squad came to a halt. "Movement. Two meters ahead, to the right."

"Flanking positions, sergeant, reargaurd."

Tsai stepped around the corner, he saw two cyborgs, dressed all in black, tearing various components out of a wall and off of an old streetsweeper droid. "You there, what is your business here?" Tsai demanded.

When he got no response from either cyborg, Tsai made a choice. "Clay, stun one of them. We can take him back for interrogation." The trooper switched his weapon to stun and fired. The cyborg dropped like a rock. The other cyborg, however, looked at his fallen comrade, scanning it with a red laser near his right eye, and then turned his attention to the stormtroopers.

"Movement detected!" shouted the specialist. "At least ten, were surrounded!"

"Defensive positions!" shouted Tsai.

It was only then that the cyborg and similarly designed creatures coming out of the shadows spoke as one saying "We are the borg. Lower your weapons and prepare to be assimilated. Resistance is futile."

Tsai's only response was, "Fire!"

The stormtroopers never had a chance. They managed to kill two or three drones before they adapted. The stormtroopers kept firing, thinking the personal shields of the cyborgs would weaken and fail, not realizing their weapons had been rendered useless. The Borg drone closed to arm's reach and began to infect their victims with borg nanites.

Captain Tsai managed to pull out his vibroknife and stab one drone in the neck, but then felt two pinpricks on the back of his neck. The last thing Tsai realized was that resistance was futile.

**TARDIS**

"You look quite refreshed," commented the Doctor as he paged through a book entitled '500 Year Diary' which he had dug out of one of the many cabinets in the TARDIS.

"Yes, this little girl named Naomi showed me something called a sonic shower. It was refreshing but had an annoying humming sound to it," commented Leela as she combed her hair.

"Well, it evidently worked fine."

"Whatever do you mean?" asked Leela.

The Doctor shrugged off her question. "Not now. I'm busy."

Leela had seen the Doctor like this many times so she just ignored him. "What are you doing?"

The Doctor sighed. "Research. Now plea-" The Doctor's eyes widened as he read on. "Oh, this should do the trick!" Having said this he put the book down and rushed over to the console. "Here we go again, Leela. Back to Earth."

"Again with this Earth place. What is this fascination you have with it?"

The Doctor smiled. "Oh, it's not that bad of a place. Besides, everyone needs a hobby."

**Residents of Rupert Giles**

**Sunnydale, CA**

"Let me get this straight. Robot zombie aliens with a bee hive personality are going around putting mechanical parts on people, thus making them a part of their cult. Now they are able to go to alternate worlds of where they came from because of something you did but you need someone else like me to fix it." The blonde girl shook her head in wonder. "I need a new job. This one just keeps getting weirder."

The slender redhead quickly corrected the blonde. "They're not a cult, Buffy. He said they had a collective mind. Like a hungry mind sponge soaking up other people's intellect and being. Then adding recycled parts to the bodies."

Xander took the donut he had been eating out of his mouth. "Goodbye appetite," he muttered.

"I've already explained all that to you," complained Q.

"Well, what about this wish thing?" asked Buffy.

"Careful with that," added Anya. Buffy nodded in acknowledgment to the former vengeance demon. Anya's centuries of experience with granting wishes gone bad could actually be helpful here.

"What do you want? I'll tell you if I'm allowed to do it." Q found this all so humiliating. Having to use his powers to buy the help of these humans that most likely wouldn't be able to help him anyway. Still he had to try.

Buffy looked down at her Watcher and mentor asleep on the couch struck down with the flu. She wished he was awake so that he could help her figure this whole thing out. But for now he was just a lump on the couch with a bad case of the flu. "How about curing the Earth of all disease?"

"I can-"

"No!" shouted Anya violently shaking her head.

"-but it would not be a very good thing in the long run," continued Q.

"How about ridding the Earth of all the demons and vampires?"

"That would be enforcing my will on others. Sorry. Not allowed."

Xander laughed but then thought better of it and stopped. "Oh! I had a thought!"

"That would be a first," commented the blonde man in leather sipping from a coffee cup.

"Back off, son of Dead Boy!" growled Xander.

"Oh!" Buffy squealed and slugged Xander's shoulder.

"Sorry, Buff. Slip of the tongue," Xander apologized. Then he grabbed his shoulder. "Oww!"

"No. Thanks for reminding me." Turning to Q she quickly made her wish known. "Can you cure vampirism in a person? Take the demon out of the man, leave the man alive but perhaps still let him have his powers of strength, healing, senses and all that. Oh! And let him go out into sunlight without being burned?"

"Eep," sputtered Willow. "Oz, too."

Buffy quickly put the question to Q. "Can you do werewolves, too?"

"And Amy the rat!" added Willow remembering the former girl that she was keeping in a cage because she couldn't change back after turning herself into a rat. "But just de-rat her. No demon thing in her. She just needs to be human again."

"Well, if the individuals were willing than yes, I could do all that. But why not just make them all regular humans again?"

Spike answered before Buffy could. "Because one of the idiot's got a guilty conscience he is trying to wash away with good deeds and all that rot!" Spike snorted. "It's easier for him to do that if he is able to use that part of himself that he actually hates."

"Hey!" snapped Buffy. "You can leave at anytime, Spike!"

"What and miss all this fun?" the vampire smirked.

Buffy turned her back on Spike and addressed Q again. "Alright, what kind of weakness do these Borg guys have?"

"None for long. If they are defeated one way they just adapt so they can not be defeated that way again."

Buffy's eyes got wide. "Uh, okay. What kind of weapons can you give us?"

The question surprised Q. He turned to the side and addressed the empty air. "Am I allowed to give out weapons?"

Buffy looked at Willow who shrugged. Xander just stared at Q. Spike laughed in his drink causing him to cough. Anya took on a look of concern. And Giles snored peacefully.

Q returned his gaze back to Buffy with a smile on his face. "What kind of weapon do you usually use?"

"Well, a little of almost everything but mostly I just rely on Mr. Pointy," she answered as she pulled out a stake from her sleeve. "You see, this end goes into the evil bad vampire's heart," she said while making direct eye contact with Spike, "then poof! Ashes to ashes, dust to dust. No more blood-sucking bad apples around."

Q grimaced. "I guess that will have to do." With a snap of his fingers there was a flash around the stake Buffy had labeled Mr. Pointy.

Buffy had almost dropped the stake. She had no idea anything was going to happen. She quickly gave Q an angry glare.

Q, of course, ignored it. "From now on this stake will go through all Borg shields and when it goes through the drone's heart it will also disintegrate into dust."

"Oh-kay." Buffy was not sure she liked this gift. She knew she would have to get in close to use it and she hadn't even seen how they fight.

"Hello? I had a question. Anyone remember that?" asked Xander.

"Go ahead, Xander. What is your question?" encouraged Willow.

"Well, if I go along do I get a wish also?"

"Hang on! These wishes can go to any of us?" demanded Spike.

Q frowned. This was starting to get complicated. "As long as they are small wishes. Alright?"

"Oh, all I want is to be able to bring back some birthday presents from wherever it is we are going," said Xander. "And maybe something for myself."

"You've got to be kidding me?" remarked Spike.

"Hey, do you know how hard it is to shop for a girlfriend that is 800 years old. Then on top of that Willow is also having a birthday soon, too." Looking Spike right in the eye he added, "Besides, it's a jungle out there when you are shopping."

"Oh, that is so sweet!" Anya was more than a little thrilled that her boyfriend had used his wish on her. Well, and the others, too.

"What about me," demanded Spike. "I've got this repressing computer chip in my head that I want out!"

"Buffy!" Willow's voice was filled with alarm. If Spike's chip were taken out he would be able to attack humans again and none of them would be safe.

"Thanks for reminding me, luv." Turning back to Q he finished his wish. "I also want the Slayer to be kept off me until after the chip is removed."

"Why only that long?" asked Q.

Spike finished his cup leaving a very red mustache. Giving a very feral grin he answered the otherworldly being. "Because then all bets are off. Because the Big Bad would be back!"

**Los Angeles, CA**

"Now remember, class. This test is a fifth of your grade for this semester so take your time and answer every question as thoughtfully as possible."

Ralph Hinkley began handing out the tests the students. The second student he handed a test looked like he was going to crumple it up and throw it away but reluctantly picked up a pencil and began working on it.

_Just goes to show that a lot of reaching out can help these kids_. Ralph mentally patted himself on the back. He had worked hard each year to reach out to the misfits and delinquent problem children the school gave to him. Each year it took a while to earn their trust. And usually longer than that to help them improve themselves.

Suddenly the classroom door opened. "Ralph, we gotta talk!"

Ralph's eyes widened at the audacity of the FBI agent. "Bill, I'm in the middle of giving an exam here."

"Not anymore." He quickly pulled a badge out of his pocket and flashed it to the class. "FBI everyone. Your exam is postponed. Everybody out."

The class looked in surprise at the intrusion and statement. When it filtered down to them that it was to their advantage they smiled, quickly gathered up their belongings and left.

"Bill, what do you think you are doing? This is my class! You don't just-"

"Something big has just come up!"

"Bill, I told you years ago. I've hung up the suit. I'm happily married. I've got two little children I have to think about. Besides you're retiring in a couple of months."

"That's not it," Bill said defensively

"You just want to go out in a bang of glory, is that it?"

Maxwell shook his head. "No, but it sounds like an appealing idea."

"Then what?" demanded Ralph.

"Well, I was at my desk, bored out of my mind I might add, when I got this phone call." He stopped to look around the classroom just to make sure it was empty. "It was about the suit."

"And you came straight here? What if they followed you?"

"I wasn't followed. And he knew about both of us." He stopped to look at his watch and pulled out a doggy treat and bit into it. "Guess I cut that a little close."

Ralph shook his head. "What are you doing?"

"Checking the time. He should be here any minute."

"I meant the doggy treat. I thought you gave those up." Ralph froze for a minute. "They're coming here?"

"Yeah." Reaching inside his coat he pulled out a bundle of bright red material.

Ralph was becoming more annoyed by the minute. "Bill, I don't-"

A slow steady grinding noise followed by the materializing of the TARDIS.

Ralph was the first to say something. "Bill…, what is that?"

"Uh," he paused to get a handle on his senses. "Well, it looks like, uh, heh, like one of those British police phone booth you always see in those European movies, Ralph."

Just then the doors to the TARDIS opened and the Doctor stepped out followed by Leela.

"Hello! Bill Maxwell and Ralph Hinkley, I presume?"

"Um, yeah. That would be us," answered the FBI agent. "You the one that called about the suit and the problem with the Swedes."

"The Borg. Yes, that was I. I'm the Doctor and this is my companion, Leela."

Ralph was still stunned by the whole thing. "How… How…" he stammered pointing at the TARDIS.

"Oh, the TARDIS. A simple transdimensional device. Care for a jellybaby?" He held out a small brown paper bag with candy.

Ralph took a look at the Doctor, then a look at Leela. Finally he turned to Bill. "Bill, can I talk to you for a minute?"

"Sure, Ralph. What's up?"

"Over here," he answered as he walked to the other end of the room.

Bill shrugged to the Doctor. "Don't worry about him. He's just a little nervous." The Doctor just smiled so Bill walked over to talk to Ralph. "Hey, kid," he whispered loudly. "What are you doing? You're wrecking the confidence they have in us."

Ralph was very upset. "Bill, an antique phone booth just materialized in my classroom and you aren't even upset about it. Shouldn't you be giving them the fourth degree to try figure out what is going on here?"

Bill threw his arm over Ralph's shoulder. "Ralph. Look at that guy, okay? Would any normal person dress that way or have his secretary/assistant or whatever she is dress the way she is. The way I figure it is he's one of those super genius scientists. Probably spotted us years ago with some super-surveillance equipment he whipped up. Now he's having some espionage problems with some Swedes and needs some outside help."

Ralph looked doubtful. "Are you sure about this?"

"Have I ever been wrong?"

"Yes!"

"Besides those times. Trust me, kid. We're on my playground now."

The Doctor looked up from a chat he was having with Leela. "Is everything alright? We are on a tight schedule."

Bill smiled confidently. "Sure. Let's get this show on the road."

"Then everybody into the TARDIS." He quickly shooed Leela inside and let the men follow him in.

"I don't think we will all fit," commented Ralph, puzzled by the actions of the strange man.

Bill experimentally stuck his head inside. "Wow! It's huge in here. Ralph, you gotta see this!"

**In the hall outside of Ralph Hickley's classroom**

"It's quiet now, Steve. I don't hear anyone."

The agent reached for the doorknob. "Well, then let's take a look."

Entering the classroom Steve Austin and Jamie Sommers stood and stared at the TARDIS.

The woman shrugged then started walking toward the blue antique. "This is what I heard them say they were getting into."

"This is getting weird. Oscar's going to owe us for this."

Jamie stuck her head in the phone booth and immediately pulled it out. "Steve, you aren't going to believe this." Then she walked inside.

"Jamie?" And Steve followed.

"There that does it," commented the Doctor to no one in particular as he set the TARDIS moving again.

"Everybody freeze! We're OSI agents!"

The Doctor looked up from where he was at the console to see the man and woman team standing at the TARSIS doorway. "Oh dear!"

Leela leaped towards Jamie with her knife extended. But Jamie caught the knife hand, and then in a blur of motion kicked Leela across the room.

"If you're OSI, then I am Uncle Sam. Where are your guns?" Bill demanded.

Steve just smiled. "We prefer not to use guns."

"That doesn't sound like any OSI agent I've meet!" Bill cocked his head to the side to speak down a corridor. "Ralph, you changed yet! We got company! And they seem to insist on causing trouble!"

"Just a minute, Bill," came the reply down the hall.

The Doctor had gone over where Leela lay in a lump on the floor. "This is really not necessary. Mr. Maxwell, please put down your gun."

"Uh uh, not until we find out more about these stowaways," answered the FBI man while keeping his gun trained on the two alleged OSI agents.

"I'm afraid I'm going to have to insist. K-9!"

The little mechanical dog came rolling out to the center of the room and stopped in front of Bill. Before Bill could even laugh at the sight of K-9 the canine unit had activated a magnetic beam in its muzzle causing the FBI agent's gun to fly out of the agent's hand and attach itself to the side of K-9's mouth region.

"What gives?" demanded Bill. "I thought we were on the same side, Doc!"

"We are," assured the Doctor. "I just don't like guns. Especially those being wielded inside the TARDIS."

"So that's what this thing is called? A TARDIS?" asked Jamie as she tried to break the ice.

"Yes, it is," answered the Time Lord. "Hello, I'm the Doctor," he continued as he offered his hand to shake. "Would you like a jellybaby. They are quite good."

Jamie shook her head at the offer of the jellybaby but did shake the strangely dressed man's hand.

"And you are?" inquired the Doctor.

"Hey, that's Steve Austin! The former astronaut." Ralph walked around the corner wearing his red suit trimmed in black with a strange symbol on the chest and a short black cape.

The Doctor ignored Ralph and instead turned to Mr. Austin. "Pleased to meet you," he said as he offered his hand.

Steve reluctantly shakes the Doctor's hand. He had no reason not to. The man had disarmed the FBI agent that had a gun on them so Steve was more inclined to befriend the man. The new man in the room, however, was another matter entirely. "And who are you suppose to be? Superman's cousin?"

Ralph was a little taken aback. While the suit he wore did have some similarities to the Superman reference in the way that it was cut, his color scheme was red and black, not red and blue. "Uh, no. I just wear this suit."

Jamie smirked. "I can think of a lot of things that would be much more fashionable."

Steve held his hands up. "Whoa, let's back up a moment. How come there's so much space inside an old antique phone booth."

"Jeez, isn't it obvious," chided Bill. "This is obviously one of those pocket dimensions and that door to the booth is the entrance to it."

The Doctor nodded his head in agreement. "That is basically correct. Very good, Mr. Maxwell."

"Hey, I've watched a few episodes of 'The Outer Limits' and 'The Twilight Zone'." Focusing his attention back on the two OSI agents he wasn't quite as polite. "Now what is the beef with you two? I don't think anyone here invited you."

Steve looked smugly at the FBI agent. "I'm afraid that is your fault." At the look of confusion on Bill's face he went on to explain. "A number of years ago you seemed to be the focus of many strange and colorful arrests."

"Ah, nothing like a little gratitude and recognition. Course I didn't get either of those so why are you on my back?"

"But there were numerous reports of a lone maverick FBI man being aided by a man in a red superhero-like suit," he pointed at Ralph who seemed to be blushing the color of his suit. "And the reports indicated that he had remarkable abilities. Periodically, the OSI would tap your phone lines and listen for any reference to anything that could be a contributing factor in-"

"Leading to how he did it," Ralph interrupted. Ralph just lowered his head. "The suit."

Jamie just nodded.

"So when I got the phone call today from the Doctor, the OSI were listening?" Bill began pacing. "That is just great!"

Ralph sat on the floor with his hands in his head. "They know about the suit. They know about me. They must know where I live by now."

Bill just froze. "I'm sorry, Ralph. Really."

The Doctor had finished checking out Leela who was now sitting with a dazed look on her face. Brushing his hands off on his sides he was determined to get down to business. "Regardless of how anyone got here you are now here. If you are to continue this journey I should first familiarize you with our adversaries, the Borg."

Bill was still trying to figure out what he should or could say to Ralph. He really wasn't in the mood for a lecture on how to do his job. "Doc, I think the Swedes can wait a few moments."

"Excuse me," inquired Jamie, "but what are the Borg?"

"Glad you asked," replied the Doctor who took a moment to give Bill a cheerful grin. "The Borg are a cybernetic life form that travel the universe planet by planet forcibly assimilating alien races and technology into their collective being, including taking every individual mind and adding it to their collective mind."

Jamie did a double take and quickly looked to Steve for support. "Cybernetic?"

"Oh yes," answered the cheerful Doctor. "But much more advanced than your cybernetic parts. Yours are rather primitive. Possible one of the first models to come out, right?"

Steve tried to play ignorant. "What do you-"

Jamie jumped the gun though. "We call it bionics, but how did you know?"

"Oh, I knew when I shook your hands. Didn't have that fleshy feel to it. Besides, I've met many other cyborgs in my lifetimes."

Jamie gave him a puzzled look. "Lifetimes?"

"Wait a minute! You mean they're robots?" demanded a perplexed Bill.

"Hey!" Jamie had taken offence.

"No," amended the Doctor. "Parts of their bodies had been replaced by cybernetic parts."

Ralph got excited and pointed at Steve. "That accident you had while you were an astronaut!"

Steve nodded. "They rebuilt me. Made me faster, stronger than I was before. In return I became an OSI agent for them."

"Well, well, well," said a smug Bill. "Now the shoe is on the other foot. You got something on us and now we got something on you."

Leela looked up from where she was still regaining her senses. Noticing the main cylinder slowing she called out. "Doctor, we are arriving."

"Ah good!" Turning back to his four passengers he quickly addressed them. "Now that you all know each other to some extent I hope you are all willing to work together."

Everyone took a moment to look at each other than nodded in consent.

"Good, because we have arrived. Everyone ready?"

Bill answered for everyone. "Ready and able, Doc!"

"Alright, everyone put on one of these comm badges. They are for communication purposes. This other device will lead you to your allies already here. And also to the Borg."

Jamie interrupted him as he handed her the tricorder. "You aren't coming with us?"

"I'd love to. Unfortunately I can't at this time."

Leela slowly walked across the room with a limp. Casting a leery eye at the strangers she stepped outside to check the surrounding area. The Doctor shook his head. Pride was a terrible thing. Especially when it fell.

"Hey!" Ralph exclaimed. "Just how did you know to call Bill about the suit?"

"Good point, Ralph," said Bill approvingly. "Fess up, Doc."

"Oh that. Well, in my travels I had some dealing with the beings that gave you the suit. I brought up the subject of Earth and they happened to mention you to me."

"Now what a minute!" demanded Jamie. "We're supposed to believe that aliens made that outrageous suit!"

Ralph looked insulted but Bill met her head on. "That's right, darlin'."

"It does look like a rip-off of a Superman costume," commented Steve.

"Actually the aliens probably saw some cartoons or comic books so they probably thought this costume would be the best way for their help to be accepted on this world," said Ralph thoughtfully. Looking up at the others staring at him he added, "Well, I've had a lot of time to think about it and it's the best answer I've come up with."

"People, we do have a mission here," reminded the Doctor. "The Borg must be stopped!"

"What's our incentive in all this," asked Bill.

A flash of white light left a man dressed in a red and black spandex uniform. "I was afraid you were going to ask that."

"Man! This place looks like a futuristic ghetto. Only this place is so bad no one would live here."

The Vulcan took a moment to study the young man. The Sunnydale resident, though resilient, was overwhelmed by the sights around him. Tuvok believed that it would be a good thing to constructively distract them. "Young man, you should put your energies to a more practical use."

Xander was puzzled. "Like what?"

"Such as learning how to use in this." Tuvok handed him an energy rifle.

Xander was overjoyed. "Cool! My own space gun. How does it work?"

As Xander was learning the basics about his new weapon Buffy had decided to do some checking on Data. With her Slayer senses and experiences she could tell that he wasn't really alive. And in her book that generally was not a good thing. "Hey, golden boy, how is that tracker thing coming?"

Data was troubled. "I do not understand the reference to the name 'golden boy'. If it is a derogatory term than I must ask if I have offended you in some way."

Now it was Buffy turn to feel awkward. "Whoa! You haven't offended me. I was just checking something."

Data continued. "In addition, I am not a boy. I am an android."

Buffy smiled. "That would explain the stiffness." Buffy could tell that Data was about to ask another awkward question so she changed the subject. "So have you found anyone on that tracker?"

"It is called a tricorder and yes. I have found Rom and Quark. They appear to be 162.4 meters down this corridor." He took a few more moments of adjusting before he was satisfied. "The layout of this substructure is making it difficult to take accurate readings but I have also found the Borg. They are 1.32 kilometers down the same corridor."

Buffy took a moment to familiarize herself with the instrument that Data held. "You mean that cluster of green dots?"

Data nodded. "Yes. Each dot represents a fully active Borg."

Buffy's eyes widen. "That's more than thirty!"

"Fifty-eight to be exact. The Borg are assimilating rapidly."

"What are those dots over there? The orange ones."

"Ah, that would be the additional help brought by the Doctor."

"Reinforcements are good," commented Buffy. "Though I would have liked more than just four people. They are people, right?"

"I have no knowledge of that. As it is, we are unsure of the correct number of Borg present. The superstructure of these massive buildings are creating blind spots on our sensors." Data took a moment to summon Tuvok in order to coordinate their efforts. "Tuvok, I recommend you and Xander greet our new arrivals. Meanwhile Buffy and I will retrieve Quark and Rom."

"Agreed." The Vulcan looked over his young companion. "Though I think you have the better of the two."

Xander was miffed. "I heard that!"

Tuvok turned back to Data. "Yes, you definitely have the better of the deal."

Buffy interceded before Xander could say anything. "Xander. This is serious time. Now go."

"Hey, I can do serious," muttered Xander. "See. This is me being serious." Xander paused. "Somehow saying that out loud doesn't work." Feeling awkward, Xander turned and silently followed Tuvok.

Buffy looked at a confused Data. She just shrugged. "Boys."

Data marked these events in his memory to be studied later. "We must inform Dr. Pulaski that she will be in charge while we are away." Data paused before consulting the young woman. "Do you think there will be any trouble?"

Buffy bit her lip as she looked over at the other three members of their group. Ensign Vorik was studying some of the unique circuitry in an open panel. Not far from him was Spike. The vampire was practically drooling. Somehow the coppery scent of a Vulcan's blood was drawing Spike like a bee to honey. Or a fly to garbage. Behind Spike was Dr. Pulaski with a phaser in one hand and a medical tricorder in the other. Ever since she had learned that Spike was technically 'dead' she had been analyzing him. Normally Spike would not allow such a thing but he was just too engrossed in the scent of Vorik's blood.

"I've never seen him like this." Buffy shook her head. "I don't think we can get him to leave with us; easily that is."

"He has already attacked Ensign Vorik once," Data pointed out.

When the three individuals from Sunnydale had first meet the team from Starfleet, they could tell right away that some of them were not human. Spike was immediately drawn to the two Vulcans, most likely from their smell. Vorik and Tuvok, not being human, were not under the protection provided by the chip that the Initiative had put in Spike's brain. After the altercation that had occurred, which ended by everybody beating Spike senseless followed by apologies and explanations made by the humans from Sunnydale, it had been agreed to never leave Spike alone with either of the Vulcans.

Buffy's stomach churned as she looked at the specks of green blood on Vorik's uniform. "I think we are going to have to take our chances."

Q and Q2 flashed into Quark's Bar startling a few of the crew who were being served drinks by Morn, the only one Quark had enough trust in to run the place while he and his brother were away.

"Well, that was quick."

Q turned to see Janeway walking up to him. "I wish it had been quicker."

Janeway froze. "Is something wrong?"

"No. It's just we are going against the clock, as you humans say."

"So how are things going?" inquired Janeway. Captain Picard, Captain Sisko, and a number of the friends of those that had gone on the mission started to gather to hear.

"Why don't you show them," suggested Guinin as she suddenly flanked in beside him.

"What do you mean?" asked a suddenly nervous Q. It was a rare occasion that Q didn't like being the center of attention. And it had been happening a lot lately.

"You have the power. Use it so that they can see what is happening to their friends."

"And why should I exert the energy to do that?"

Guinin frowned. "Because the people here will sit and worry about their friends. And the longer it takes to find out things the more nervous they will get." Turning her attention to Q2 she continued her explanation, "In addition, those who are able to watch here will be more able to know what to expect when their turn to go comes up, thus making them able to perform better."

Q2 took a moment to think about it then he nodded to Q. "Do it."

Q sighed in frustration. "Very well." With a snap of his fingers six of the paneling behind where the dabo tables had been moved suddenly began displaying scenes of the six missing people. Only something seemed wrong.

"Why is it doing that? It's showing things too fast," said a perplexed Picard.

Q2 chuckled. "That would be my doing. When the young lady," with a wave of his hand he indicated Guinin, "mentioned that time was of the essence; I decided to speed up time wherever Q's recruits were sent so that the Borg wouldn't get too far ahead in all the other parallel universes."

"That also means we won't have to wait as long for them to return," commented Admiral Paris.

"Still, it is going to be rather difficult to understand what is going on if all their actions being displayed for us are at warp speed," commented Chakotay.

"True, but we don't want the visuals slowed down or else our people will return halfway through it," added Kira.

Janeway was frustrated but intrigued. "Regardless of what we do I recommend we set up some equipment to record all this. We have the opportunity to study other parallel dimensions here. We should not pass it up."

"That's it! Captain, you are a genius!" piped Tom Paris.

"How's that," asked Janeway.

"Well, if we record the visuals that Q has provided for us, and then we can play back segments of them at our speed to find out what is going on."

"Brilliant, Tom!" congratulated Janeway. Janeway was almost about to summon her Chief of Engineering when she remember she was not on her ship. "Captain Sisko, do you think your people can handle it."

"Of course," nodded Sisko. "Captain Sisko to Chief O'Brien."

"Do you have any idea what this might be worth in our universe! I have never seen technology like this before," said Quark excitedly.

"I'm more worried about those soldiers we slipped by earlier. They didn't look very friendly."

Quark snorted. "Well, they will have less of a chance of finding us if you shut your yap and come over here. I'm not getting anywhere with this thing."

Noting that Rom hadn't moved due to his worry of being discovered, Quark rose to his feet and dusted his hands off in frustration. "Fine! I'll guard the door. You go see if you can get anything valuable off that mechanical thing."

Rom hurriedly traded places with his brother. "This is an important mission we are on," he scolded, but not expecting his brother to heed him. "Not to mention dangerous. We really don't have time to scrounge around for valuable technology to steal."

"There's where you are wrong." Quark did a quick peek out the doorway then resumed correcting his brother. "The others are more than capable of fixing this without our help. Besides, what are you? A Ferengi or a Hew-mon." Quark shook his head. "The only reason that we are here is because those Q creatures decided it would be amusing to place two innocent Ferengi in the midst of this mess."

Rom didn't even try to remind his brother that he had volunteered Rom and thus, brought himself to the Qs attention. "I miss my wife."

Quark scowled at his brother. "Will you get busy! We don't know how long it will be before those soldiers return!" Seeing that his brother was finally focusing on his work, Quark turned back to the door to check the hall for soldiers. Instead he saw a wooden stake descending towards his chest. "Aaaahhhh!!!!"

Just before the stake would have made contact, Data's hand flashed out and caught Buffy's wrist.

"What are you doing? I gotta stake him. The older and more powerful a vampire is the more ugly they are! And this guy's gotta be the oldest I've seen! Help me! Don't hinder me!" she tried freeing her hand from his grip but was surprised to note that Data was stronger than she was.

Data tilted his head. "I understand your logic. However, these two are not vampires. They are Ferengi. This is how they are supposed to look. They are also the two team members that we have been searching for."

"Oh," responded Buffy in a small voice. "Sorry."

Quark lay on the floor clutching his chest over the area the stake had almost plunged into. "I… I… She… She..!!!"

Rom hurried forward to console his brother. "It's alright. She just mistook you for a vampire." Rom paused, tilted his head, and then looked at Buffy. "What's a vampire?"

Before she could comment Data went into reference mode. "A vampire is one who preys ruthlessly on others."

Rom turned to his brother. "Quark, you are a vampire!"

Hearing this partial confirmation Buffy quickly raised her stake again. Data grabbed her wrist again and continued with his reference. "A vampire, in Earth lore, is also referred to as a reanimated corpse that survives by drinking the blood of living people."

Quark made a face. "That's disgusting. And you confused me with something like that. I'm insulted!"

"Well, there is the teeth. And the ridges on the forehead are kind of similar," defended Buffy, "but the ears are new."

"And they drink blood?" asked Rom wide-eyed, which got a nod from Buffy. "That is so disgusting. I think I'm going to be sick."

"Now look what you have done," said Quark pointing a finger at Buffy.

"Rom, what were you doing with that robot?" The robot in question, covered with decades of dust and grime, emitting a series of beeps and whistles. "Pardon me, the correct term is 'droid'."

Rom forgot his upset stomach. "You understand him?"

"Yes." Data tilted his head in thought. "I believe it has something to do with Q making it so we could understand and speak the local languages. Since I am an android, I am also able to now understand and speak the local computer languages." A few more whistles and beeps came from the ancient droid. "I have been informed that it's designation is JC-2B. Evidently its last orders were to stay here and recharge. Fortunately, it was left recharging on one of the few circuits that have not failed down here."

"Can you have him explain some of these parts to you?" asked Rom. "I can't seem to grasp the meaning behind half of them."

The two tech knowledgeable members went to converse with the strange machine leaving Buffy and Quark to fend for themselves.

Quark struggled to get off the ground. Buffy held out her hand "Here. Let me help you."

Quark waved her off. "You nearly kill me, and then insult me. And that whole blood story. Yuck!" Quark stuck out his tongue in disgust. Suddenly struck from a bout of dizziness, he stumbled toward a dust and cobweb-covered chair. "I gotta sit down. The stress of this whole mess is getting to me." He turned and pointed an accusing finger at Buffy, "And you are not helping!"

"I'm sorry about the misunderstanding." _Oh no, I almost killed somebody who wasn't a demon_. "Really. Is there anything I can do?"

"What can you do?" quoted Quark sarcastically. "Well you can..." He paused. An idea can to him. "You could massage my lobes."

"What?" She knew that he wasn't originally going to say that. He looked like he was going to say something spiteful but he didn't. According to Data these were aliens, not monsters. In a social studies class in school she had been taught that what was acceptable or expected in one culture may not be so in another. One of the things covered was that often times it were the little things that caused the biggest troubles between cultures so that the groups not to want to work with each other. Her only problem was that she couldn't know what would be the norm for Ferengi. She wasn't dealing with a culture from the other side of the world but from some other planet.

"It would calm me down from all this excitement. It's quite therapeutic for my people," stated the Ferengi as innocently as possible.

"You mean like a massage but with your ears instead of your shoulders?" Buffy tried to define. Or to even understand.

Quark nodded. "And you have to be gentle. I've seen your Hew-mon backrubs. They look barbaric."

Buffy moved behind the chair that Quark was sitting in. "Well, I suppose, since they don't look like they don't have any slime or ear wax."

"We Ferengi take very good care of our ears," said an insulted Quark. Quark sighed as Buffy walked around behind ham and began to massage the upper lobes of his ears. "Oh yeah. That feels wonderful."

Buffy continued her ministering as her mind tried to work on another problem. _Now why do I have the feeling I know this guy from somewhere_, wondered Buffy.

On the other side of the room Data and Rom were making some headway. Having removed one of the side covers of the droid's shell the two were able to get a good look at the makeup of the droid. "This droid's data relay system has some similarities to my positronic brain."

"I know," agreed Rom. "I've seen a schematic once. Isn't it amazing. The similarities, I mean."

"Due to those similarities this droid may actually be sentient. In addition, much of it behavior seems to support that conclusion. It seems to express personality."

"A stubborn personality, maybe," commented Rom. "It tried to burn me with a welder when I first tried to examine it."

Data cocked his head. "Why did it defend itself?"

"Defend…? It attacked. Quark had me try to open up some of its hatches to see how it ran. Then-"

Data nodded. "I see. As much as I would like to explore the scientific mechanics this universe has to offer, we really much return to our colleagues and focus our attentions on defeating the Borg."

Rom nodded in agreement. Turning from their impromptu project the android and Ferengi froze at the sight of Buffy and Quark.

"Oh, a little higher. Yes, now lower. Hey, you learn fast and your hands… Oooh! So skilled!"

Even Data showed signs of being stunned for a few moments before he was able to address the Slayer. "Buffy, are you aware that you are engaging in 'oo-mox', which is a sexually arousing stimulus for the Ferengi."

"What!?!" Buffy's eyes bugged.

"Aaarrrrgh! My ears! My ears! She's crushing them!" Quark flailed around in agony, but with Buffy behind him with a good grip on his ears he wasn't going anywhere. "Heeeelp!"

"I'm gonna rip them off your head, you… you… Ferengi!" Buffy lifted him up in the air and kicked the chair he had been sitting in across the room and then threw Quark on the ground, all while maintaining her grip on his ears.

Rom's eyes were wide. "She's stronger than she looks."

"I agree," commented Data.

Rom looked at Data. "Aren't you going to do something?" asked Rom

"Commander Riker once pointed out to me that sometimes it is useful to let two individuals who have a disagreement to 'fight it out and get it out of their system' so that they can function better together later," explained Data as he kept his eyes on the spectacle in front of him.

Rom watched fearfully and emphatically as Buffy placed her foot on Quark's left ear and used both of her hands to twist his right ear. "Oh, that's got to hurt!"

"Get off my lobes," Quark wailed. "Getoffgetoffgetoffgetoff!"

"I thought you liked your ears handled!"

Data was unsure of how to gauge Riker's theory but he was certain that things were getting out of hand. "Buffy, this irrational behavior does not seem to be accomplishing anything. I must ask that that you desist."

"Oh, but it is working," spoke Buffy as she began banging Quark's head into the floor using his ears for leverage. "I'm working out a lot of my aggression right now and trust me it feels good!"

"Eeerrggh!" screeched Quark. "I'll pay latinum. Just get her off me! YEEEAAAOooocCH! AWK! PleasYEEEaaahhhh!"

Before Data could comment the tricorder in his belt made a beep. "Buffy, the tricorder is detecting a Borg in our vicinity. I recommend you leave your assault on Quark's ears for later."

Buffy did a quick roll to the side and was on her feet in an instant.

Quark lay on the floor in agony trying to gently cradle his ears with his hands. His ears were quickly turning colors of red, purple and black with little trickles of blood. "You're a monster! A horrible, horrible monster!" groaned Quark.

"I know you are, but what am I?" See smiled sweetly as she kneeled down beside him. "I'll tell you what I am. I'm the slayer of monsters." Quark shivered and started to curl into a ball. She whapped one of his battered ears with her wooden stake to get his attention. "You try to take advantage of my ignorance about you or anything else again and I'll use Mr. Pointy here to pierce your ears. Got it?" Without waiting for him to acknowledge her Buffy stormed out into the hall to cool off while wiping her hands on her pants.

Rom immediately went to his brother. Upon a closer inspection of the wounds Quark had suffered he winced. He could see that they were superficial, but also that it was extremely painful. Rom looked up to Data, who was searching in a medical kit he had brought, and asked a question he was very afraid to hear answered. "She's not insane, is she?"

Data took a couple of milliseconds to run Rom's hypothesis before giving a response. "Unknown. However, she has not displayed any violent behavior prior to Quark's subterfuge. I do not believe we will have any other problems with her. In addition, she seems to be a formidable opponent. We need her."

On the far side of the room a door slid open. A Borg drone walked in. Data immediately dropped the medical hypo-spray and drew his phaser. After the drone had visually scanned the room it walked over to the small droid and began a more serious scan.

Quark had closed his eyes in anticipation for the relief that the hypo-spray would provide. Not hearing the gentle hiss of the hypo-spray or feeling the cool release it would provide Quark decided he should open his eyes even though he was sure he wasn't going to like what he saw. He was right. "Don't just stand there! Kill it! That's what you came here for, wasn't it?"

Data answered Quark without taking his eyes off the Borg. "If I attack it, then the rest of the Borg will perceive us as a threat before we are prepared to become one." The droid being scanned by the Borg gave a few quivering whistles but Data did not translate.

"It's an assimilated Cardassian, isn't it?" noted Rom.

"What," Quark said, temporarily forgetting his injuries in view of this new danger. "How can you tell? The majority of it's face has been replaced with sensors and stuff?"

"Rom's assumption is correct. Look at the ridges of the exposed left eye as well as on the exposed neck areas. It has-"

Just then the door behind them opened. Data spun around and Buffy found a phaser pointed directly at her.

"Hey! What gives?" Then Data spun back to covering the drone. "Who's that… or better yet what's that?"

"Shhh!" shushed Rom. "It's a Borg"

Buffy smiled. "Cool. Let's see how much of an upgrade Q really gave to Mr. Pointy."

Data held out a hand. "Buffy. You-"

"You are the android Starfleet officer known as Data." Data froze. If he had had blood in his veins, it would have been running cold. "You have resisted the Borg before. Resistance is futile. You will be assimilated. As will everything here." As quickly as the drone had addressed the android, the Borg turned away from him and returned to his task. A laser came out of its arm-housing appendage and began cutting into the droid.

The painful squeals coming from the rusty droid were all Buffy needed to get her going. "Assimilate this!" Buffy threw her Q-amplified stake at the Borg drone with surprising results. The throw was true to its mark and found the drone's heart. Suddenly the drone turned to ashes and it's metal components collapsed on the ground along with Mr. Pointy.

Buffy walked over and picked up her stake. "Dusted and rusted. Two points for Mr. Pointy."

Quark grunted as he got into a better sitting position. Then he blinked. Slowly he began his pitch. "You know, there would be an incredible market for functional anti-Borg weapons. If we could mass produce your Mr. Pointy we could capitalize on-"

Buffy gave him a cold glare. "You may be on this team, for what reasons I have no idea, but there is something about you that just makes me want to see what Mr. Pointy can do to you."

"What did I do? I'm a nice guy," Quark stated as he managed to get to his feet.

"You are annoying, cowardly, sniveling, obnoxious, arrogant, self-centered, greedy, and I've just realized that you remind me of my high school principal. And believe me that last one is more than enough for me to want to hurt you!"

Data put his hand on Buffy's shoulder. "The Borg are aware that we are here. We must leave here immediately."

"Morn, I should have known better than to have bet against you." Ezri put the appropriate number of latinum chips in front of her friend.

Morn just shrugged his shoulders. And quietly took his winnings. He knew better than to gloat. All gloating does is discourage people from betting with you next time.

Kira saddled up to the bar next to her to companions. "What's going on here?"

Morn just winked at her, pointed to Ezri, and then politely dismissed himself to go to the men's room.

"Uh oh, when Morn gets that quiet I know he's won something." Kira turned to her friend. "So how much did he get you for?"

Ezri Dax sighed. "It really wasn't about the money. I was just trying to do a little re-bonding, you know?" Even though Ezri Dax was herself, she was also more. Her people had a symbiosis relationship with a parasitic lifeform that was able to pass on the life experiences, memories and to some extent personality traits to their current host of previous beings they had lived in. The previous host, Jadzia Dax, had worked on Deep Space Nine among the same people Ezri Dax now found herself among. It was confusing and difficult to say the least. "Anyway, we were betting which team would be the first to defeat a drone."

"So they encountered the Borg?"

Ezri nodded. "You could say that."

"So who won?" Kira asked.

"Morn did."

Kira laughed. "No. Who took out the first Borg drone?"

"Oh, it was the girl. Buffy."

"Your kidding, right? That skinny little blond?"

Ezri snorted. "I would not pay five strips of latinum for a joke." She paused. "Well, maybe if it was a really good joke… on someone like Worf or Julian…and I didn't get blamed for it."

Morm quietly slides up behind Ezri and whispers in her ear. After a few moments of continual whispering and listening to Ezri giggle from time to time Kira knew that she was not going to be apart of whatever it was that they were considering hatching. Besides she had too much on her plate at the moment. "Well, I think I will let you two conspirators here." She stood up to leave. "If you see anything interesting in the portals call me, okay?"

Ezri was giggling almost hysterically now but still managed to nod to her friend.

Tuvok and Xander had made good time. They had run into one being during their journey but the wretched looking thing had taken off as soon as it saw them. Tuvok pointed out that it most likely nothing to worry about since it was probably just a derelict or hermit living in the sublevels of the city. Xander argued that some of the things living under cities are not so harmless leading to a discussion on the different creatures found on the Hellmouth. After exhausting that subject Tuvok discussed Vulcan culture after much pleading from Xander.

"So you and your race have green blood, funky eyebrows and no emotions. No emotions at all?"

"That is correct. However, we can become annoyed. Which is what you have been doing for the last ten minutes."

"Sorr-ee! I'm just trying to get a little cultural exchange program going here." The two walked in silence as they came around a corner.

"Freeze! Friend or Foe," challenged the man with the gun pointed directly at them.

"Friend," responded Tuvok. "I am Tuvok. This is Alexander."

The boy turned to Tuvok miffed. "The name is Xander. Short and simple. Xander."

Tuvok ignored the outburst of the teenager and focused his attention on the man who still pointed the gun directly at them. "You were brought here by the Doctor, were you not? We are the allies you were to meet here."

The man with the gun smiled. "How do we know you are our allies? How do we know you aren't members of the Borg trying to infiltrate us."

_The man must have major paranoia problems_, thought Xander. "Hey, look, we have the same tracker thingee that you have. See," responded Xander.

"That doesn't prove anything. You could have-"

"Ease up, Bill," spoke up a blond curly haired man who was sitting at a table looking over a manual. Having taken his focus off the manual the man stood up to see what Bill was making so much noise about.

"Hey, why are you wearing red pajamas?" asked the boy.

"There not pajamas and the name is Ralph."

"Oh, are you one of those male exotic dancers or are you part of a circus?"

"Hey, kid," Bill snapped, "this is one of the Greatest American Heroes of all time." Xander gave him a look of disbelief.

Ralph sighed. "I give up." Ralph turned to his friend, "Bill, put the gun down."

"Kid, we are in enemy territory here. We don't know them."

"Would you send in someone to infiltrate someone else's base who was that annoying?"

"HEY!!" protested Xander.

"You got a point, Ralph." Bill lowered his gun. "Tuvok was it? Nice to have you aboard. Bill Maxwell's the name. FBI."

"Bill, I'm going to try read that instruction manual again. I think it might be really helpful if I can just figure it out. The thing is driving me nuts. It reads like stereo instructions. "

"Yeah, sure kid. No pro-" Bill whirled around and pointed his gun at the two figures coming around the corner. "Freeze!"

Steve and Jamie froze.

"Jeez, give a guy a little warning before you come traipsing into base next time, huh?" sighed Bill.

"This is base?" asked Jamie.

"Well… it's a temporary base until we meet the others that… we just met."

"Who's this?" spoke up Steve.

"I am Tuvok," responded Tuvok, "and this is 'Xander'."

Xander grinned. "He can be taught!"

"This is Steve and I'm Jamie."

Tuvok nodded acknowledging the names.

Bill looked closer at Tuvok noticing the different features. "What's with the ears? You an alien?"

"I am a Vulcan," retorted Tuvok in a way that could be interpreted as smug.

"Yeah, he has green blood, too," spoke up the teenager. "And no emotion. Unless you count being annoyed?"

Bill scrutinized the black Vulcan. "I always thought that aliens would look a lot different that humans. I've been around aliens before, but I just never got the opportunity to see one." Bill stepped back and decided to accept the man's claim to being an alien. _No human could be that much of a stiff_! he decided. "Well, I'm disappointed. I thought there would be more to aliens than pointy ears and slanted eyebrows."

At that Tuvok's eyebrows raised. "Indeed!"

"Actually," perked up Jamie, "Steve and I just saw an alien rowing an old boat across an underground lake. It was a light greenish color with big eyes. Kept muttering about looking for his 'precious'." Jamie paused in her description. "I think it might have been insane, whatever it was."

"If I had to live in this place I'd probably go buggy, too," said Xander.

Tuvok looked over his companions with interest, familiarizing himself with their personalities. Now that everything has calmed down it was time to move on. "This has all been intriguing, however, now we need to leave this 'base' and meet with the others."

Bill turned to the Vulcan. "Why? What's the hurry?"

"Because the trackers show that our friends are being pursued in this general direction," answered Tuvok.

Steve interjected, "We could set up an ambush."

Tuvok turned to Steve. "We do not want the Borg to perceive us as a threat this early in our mission. We need to get closer to their 'base' before we start attacking."

Maxwell grunted. "I don't like it."

"I could stay behind and make sure that they make it," volunteered Ralph.

"No need," commented Tuvok as he examined his tricorder. "The Borg seem to have not yet set up transporters yet. Since the Borg are basically slow our friends are quickly outdistancing them."

"So they don't need our help," asked Jamie.

Data shook his head. "It appears the Borg that have given chase to our friends have instead run into the authorities of this world."

"Well good," commented Bill. "They can help defend this place."

"They will not succeed," commented Tuvok. "They do not know what they are up against."

Vorik wiped off some of the rust and grime on to his chest. One of the main occupational hazards of working in engineering was always getting your hands dirty. As much as he didn't mind getting his hands dirty, he preferred to have them clean.

"So…?" inquired a voice behind him.

Turning to the Starfleet doctor he noticed an air of unease or discomfort. He did not know much about Dr. Pulaski, he did know that she had worked on the U.S.S. Enterprise. Though he was a Vulcan and without emotion he still found that to be impressing. "So… what?"

Pulaski shook her head. "So the computer circuitry you were working on? Were you able to do anything with it?" _Ensigns_, Pulaski thought in frustration.

Vorik looked down at the montage of computer components meshed together. "I believe so. The quality with which I have had to work with is the largest obstacle to overcome." He watched her shift her feet in agitation. _Just like B'Elanna_, he thought, _She wants a direct, straightforward answer with little or no explanations_. "Basically, I have created an echo analyzer. This device is sending out a signal throughout the working and non-working circuitry then returning here for analysis. My tricorder," he pointed to the assimilated Starfleet device attached to the collection of dilapidated equipment from this universe, "will then cypher through the data looking for Borg technology and-"

"And then it will tell us where they bloody well are." Spike threw what was left of his snack at the wall near Vorik's head. "You've really got to work on your dialog, mate. I'd be dying over here if I wasn't already dead." Spike laughed when they pointed their phasers at him. He knew they wouldn't shoot him. He was their ally. Spike laughed at that, too. In truth, Spike was quite taken with this world that was covered with mountain sized buildings that shaded him from the sun. At first he was interested in this job just to get the chip out of his head. Then the sweet coppery smell of the blood in Tuvok and Vorik called to him. And the chip didn't stop him when he attacked them. The chip didn't care if they weren't demons. The chip just knew they weren't human. After the others had pried him off Vorik followed by Buffy giving him the beating of his death, Spike took a little time to regain his control and put everything in prospective. Besides, the phasers really took a lot out of him. _The green stuff effects me like too much good wine_, he thought. _Or drugs. Better hold off that stuff until this is all over_.

The underground forgotten levels of this place still teamed with life and Spike began sampling it. Some, like the chicken-lizard thing he caught, he had to spit out right away. But a few, like the bat-jellyfish thing reminded him of delicacies back home, such as chocolate-covered cherries - at least the filling inside the creature did. Spike was really beginning to like the idea of living on a smorgasbord planet filled with alien delicacies.

Dr. Pulaski lowered her weapon. She hated having been left in charge but ensign Vorik was nowhere near ready to lead and Spike…, Pulaski shuddered at the thought. "Spike, don't throw your food. Got it?"

Spike smiled and gave a mock bow. "Whatever you say, your worshipfulness."

Shaking her head in disgust she decided to direct her attention to someone who was at least not intentionally trying to give her a headache. "Vorik, is there any sign of the others?"

Vorik did a quick readout of the surrounding area. "None. But that is not surprising considering the density of the support beams and all the other mass. Once the readings from the echo device come in I will see if I can convert it to also listen for Starfleet technology as well."

Pulaski bit her lip in frustration. "Vorik?"

Vorik looked at her with his head tilted to one side.

"I hate to do this to you," she began.

"Do what?"

She hesitated. _Why didn't Starfleet ever cover situations like this_, she wondered. _When I get back I'm going to make some very subtle suggestions to the people who create the training simulation holos_. "I'm going to have to leave you alone with Spike."

To his credit Vorik only raised one eyebrow. "Why?"

"She's got to take a leak, man," commented Spike. At Vorik's look of non-understanding Spike decided to clarify. "You know, it involves the porcelain powdery room and all that mortal nonsense. Haven't you noticed her fidgeting around. She's about to explode. Glad I don't have to deal with that mess anymore," he snorted.

Dr. Pulaski glared at Spike as she began running scenarios in her head having her explain before a tribunal how killing a being who was technically already dead could not be construed as murder.

Laughter filled the bar as Worf and Odo entered. Worf's eyes darted to the left and right looking for anything out of the ordinary. Odo immediately centered in on the focus of everyone's attention. All the beings in Quark's bar were looking one of the monitors O'Brien's team had set up to display the visuals produced on the paneling by Q at a slower and more normal pace.

"What's going on here?" Odo growled.

No one noticed. Instead they all began chanting, "Play it again! Play it again!"

Odo and Worf gave each other a look then pushed to the head of the crowd. Everyone was overjoyed to the point of being in pain.

"Oh good, you got here. They're about to show it again."

Odo looked confused. "Nerys? You said it was a priority that I get down here and bring Worf. What's going on?"

Kira was gasping for breath as tears streamed down her face. "It's one of the visuals we got. It's hilarious."

Odo shook his head. This was unlike the Kira he knew. "I don't understand. What is it?"

Kira took a moment to take a drink before answering. "It's Quark. He gets the living tar beat out of him by a skinny young girl."

Odo frowned. "I can see how that could be appealing; however, I don't think it would be befitting to watch this for enjoyment. Don't you agree, Worf? Worf?"

Odo turned to find Worf sitting at a table staring at the visual with a rarely seen grin of pure enjoyment. _What has gotten into everybody_, thought Odo.

Catching site of the screen he managed to glimpse the young blond girl lift Quark up by his ears and slam him into the ground. _Then again_, thought Odo, _maybe something of this caliber does have its merits._

Quark was running down the corridor as fast as he could hobble. Near the end of the hall his foot caught a large piece of rubble causing him to crash headfirst into the floor. Every battered part of his body screamed for him to lie there but then the little voice in the back of his mind whisper to him. 'You will be assimilated.'

"No!" he cried as he stumbled to his feet. His hands found fresh blood on his forehead. He looked behind him for signs of pursuit. I just have to outrun the others. _If I keep them between myself and the Borg I'll be alright_, he thought.

He put his hand out and leaned against the wall taking in deep breaths. His ears were pounding to a rhythm his head couldn't keep up with. '_What about Rom_?' his inner voice asked.

A wave of guilt flooded over him momentarily. "He should have stayed with me," he said to himself. "But would he listen to his older and much wiser brother? Oh no! He's got to try save the rusted pile of junk that we found."

'_You were the one who made him examine it_,' reminded Quark's subconscious. '_And you knew he would get interested in it. In fact you were counting on it_."

Quark noticed the floor tilting to the right then sharply to the left. Finally it went straight up and Quark found himself flat on his back on the floor. "What's the matter with this place? Why won't anything do what it's supposed to? And has anyone got anything to drink?"

'_You've been careless and got hit in the head too many times. That last time on the floor really did it to us_.' Quark heard a sigh in his head. '_As for a drink, well, you could ask those fellows standing above us. But I don't think they are going to help us_.'

Quark opened his eyes. Then blinked them. "Odo? Is that you?"

The Stormtroopers answered by simply pulling him to his feet and dragging him away.

Bufy was furious. "I can't believe he just left us there like that!" Buffy tossed a beam that was blocking their way to the side in frustration.

"I can," replied Rom.

Buffy was surprised. Rom had no tone of resentment or anger. "But he's your brother. He should have stayed with us." Though Buffy hadn't liked Quark; she was surprised to find how sweet Rom was despite how non-cute he was.

"I am his brother. That is why I know what to expect. Or at least have an understanding when he does do something."

"But he ran away," she exclaimed.

Rom shrugged his shoulders as he was moving an empty barrel to the side. "He's a Ferengi."

Buffy was puzzled at that. "So are you, aren't you?"

"Not to a Ferengi I'm not."

"I'm really not understanding here," replied Buffy. "You mean like a social class or cast system?"

"Not exactly." Rom paused as he tossed some of the larger pieces of rubble to the side. "I think it's a perception thing more than anything."

"Anything in particular."

"I think you call it money."

Buffy nodded. "The gears are turning now. So basically you have a world of Cordelias and anyone who doesn't fit into the highest standing of considerable wealth is considered a loser."

"Loser?" Rom scratched his ear and caught his breath. "We just called them somebody to exploit." He paused in reflection. "What's a Cordelia?"

"You don't want to know," she replied.

"He will come back though."

"Quark?" Buffy smirked at the thought. "Not likely."

"Once he stops to think and catch his breath he will come back."

Buffy didn't want to install doubt in Rom's belief in his brother but as far as she was concerned Spike had a greater chance of becoming a caring person that Quark had about becoming genuinely concerned about his brother. "Well, if he does I bet he doesn't do it as fast as he left." Seeing Rom grin she turned to the task in front of her. She took a deep breath and began pushing a collapsed servo-bot out of the way. After a minute of grunting and no sigh of success she gave up. "Hey, Data."

The android looked up from the smaller rubble left behind by Buffy and Rom that he had been kicking to the side. Following him and making an assortment of beeps and whistles was the small rusted JC droid that had been freed from its restraining bolt and moving about for the first time in centuries. "Yes Buffy, may I help you?" asked Data.

"Yeah. This thing is rusted to the floor or something. Can you give a hand?"

The android and droid moved through the cleared trail that Buffy and Rom had been making for JC-2B. "Fascinating. Evidently, the lifters evident on this device gave it the ability to-"

"Data!" Buffy glared at the Starfleet officer. "This is not Popular Mechanics or even Archeology Today. Can you move it?"

Data cocked his head to the side. Raising his left arm he reached over to the decrepit servo-bot and casually pushed it to the side. Turning back to Buffy he answered, "Yes."

Buffy just stood there with her mouth hung open.

Rom took a step forward to examine the droid following Data. "How is the JC-2B? Any signs of- - Yeeah!"

JC-2B swung its welding appendage at the back pedaling Ferengi while emitting a series of sharp buzzes and static.

Data quickly moved between the droid and engineer. Once the cantankerous machine had settled down and its welding appendage had ceased arcing, Data was able to address his two teammates. "I believe that it would be best for you to keep some distance between yourselves and JC-2B. His time alone for all these centuries has left him to build up a strong resentment and dislike against organic lifeforms."

Buffy nodded. "So that's why you insisted on walking back here with JC. And here I thought it was an ethnic thing."

Data cocked his head to the side. "In a sense, it is an ethnic thing. You see, his distrust in organic forms of life-"

"Got it," Buffy interjected. "Boy, somebody needs to download you with a sense of humor. Let's go, okay."

_Violence begets violence_, thought Jamie. She had just thrown another Stormtrooper into the corner. _Neatness is next to Godliness_, she thought, _oh wait, that's 'cleanliness'_. She grabbed a convenient rod of metal and began hitting the armored soldiers near her.

It had all started out so simple. Her, Steve, and their group of new allies had determined that the other group of allies, which Jamie had not met yet, were going to need help because it was about to be attacked. So her group had moved out to see if they could be of any assistance to the other group. Yet somehow the other group had avoided contact altogether with the Borg and Stormtroopers. However, Jamie's group had found itself cut off by the Stormtroopers of this universe. Instead of any attempt to reason the Stormtroopers had attacked. Much to the Stormtroopers regret.

Jamie kicked the rifle of a Stormtrooper who had been aiming at Tuvok. The soldier wheeled back and attempted to get a bead on the woman. Suddenly the Stormtrooper was tackled from behind.

"Here I come to save the day…owww! Mental note. Tackling guys in full battle armor hurts." Xander got up and stood over his victim a little shaken and sore.

"Not bad," commented Jamie. Taking another look at Xander's tackle dummy she added, "but not out."

Xander looked down and saw that the Stormtrooper he had taken down was slowly shaking off his unconsciousness and sitting up. Reaching over to a pile of rubble next to him Xander picked up a large chunk of rock. Standing over the Stormtrooper Xander dropped the rock on the soldier's helmeted head. Looking at Jamie he shrugged his shoulders. "I don't know about anything else in this sci-fi junkyard, but gravity still works."

Jamie was already taking stock of the situation. Ralph had two attacking soldiers by the arms and would swing them into one of the walls whenever they tried something stupid like trying to attack him. Bill was busy collecting the weapons that the Stormtroopers had been using. Tuvok was using his tricorder to check for any casualties. And Steve had just posted himself at the end of the hall to watch for more troops.

"I count twelve individuals. None with any serious injuries. All unconscious except for those Ralph has detained." Tuvok put away his tricorder. "Xander, I have a question for you."

Xander was busy looking at the guy he had taken down. "Huh? Sure. What?"

"Why did you tackle your opponent?"

Xander blinked. "He was about to shoot the agent lady. What kind of question was that?"

"Why didn't you use the pulse rifle I gave you? It would have been quicker and more efficient."

"I…I guess I just went on instinct."

"Indeed." Tuvok turned to address Jamie. "Mrs. Austin-Sommers, if you would take sentry here I will go assist Mr. Hinkley with his two prisoners." Giving Xander another glance he turned and walked toward Ralph and his two captured soldiers.

"Oh sure." Jamie took another look at Xander. "You know, it was still a big thing that you did tackling that guy."

"Huh?" Xander looked up at Jamie. He had been busy trying to get the helmet off the guy he had downed. "No big. Say does this thing look familiar to you?" he said as he held up the helmet up with one hand for her to see.

"Looks like a scene out of Hamlet. You do have Shakespeare where you come from, right?"

"Yeah, old dead English guy who wrote a bunch of plays and stuff. But that's not what I mean. The helmet. Does it look familiar to you?"

"Like a football helmet?"

"No," said Xander, his voice going all serious. "But something just about as familiar. It's on the tip of my brain. You sure you don't know what it is?"

"Xander. I come from 1991, you come from the year 2000. There are going to be things that you know or are familiar with that I will not."

"Yeah, but for some reason I think this is something even you would be familiar with."

"But my world is different than yours. For instance, my world doesn't have vampires."

"That you know about."

Jamie paused. "Uh, true, but-"

"Oh, wow!" Xander stared at the helmet like it was gold.

Jamie took a quick look down the hall, then back at the young man. "What?"

"Jamie, did you ever have a movie called 'Star Wars' back in your reality?"

"Uh, yeah. I think it's the only non-romantic movie I ever saw more than once. Why?"

"This!" He thrust the helmet up at her. "Remember in the movie the evil Empire had these foot soldiers that armor that made them look like skeletons on steroids! They were called Stormtroopers!" He began looking around him with a gleam in his eye. "We are in a reality that the plot of the 'Star Wars' movie actually exists!" He looked down at the Stormtrooper helmet in his hands. "Talk about owning a collector's item!"

"I don't know, Xander. Let's not jump to conclusions."

"No!" He shook his head. "You were on the right track before."

"I was? With what?"

"In your reality vampires are a myth. In my reality we have Spike and such. In both our realities 'Star Wars' is a myth. Well, sort of a myth, anyway, here its real!"

Jamie took a moment to contemplate Xander's theory. "So what you are saying is that what's real on one parallel world may be fiction in another?"

"Indeed."

Jamie and Xander turned to Tuvok who had returned. "An interesting hypothesis. I do not have any idea what this 'Star Wars' is, however, from what I was able comprehend your conjecture may be probable. Good work, Xander. As I see it almost anything is possible as long as there is as unchanging template to base it on."

Xander shrugged. "You mean there has to be some absolutes that stay the same in all the realities. Right?"

Tuvok raised an eyebrow. He was surprised that the boy had understood him. "Exactly."

Xander raised his hands in a silent cheer.

Tuvok shook his head. "Unfortunately, we shall have to postpone this speculation until later."

Jamie coughed. "Excuse me, Tuvok. What about the soldiers that Ralph captured?"

Tuvok frowned. "Unfortunately, Ralph tried to encourage them to talk." Tuvok paused. "By banging their heads together."

Jamie winced and looked down the hall to see Ralph being berated by Bill while standing very sheepishly over the bodies of two Stormtroopers. "Are they okay?"

"Merely unconscious," stated the Vulcan. "Now we really must…" Tuvok stopped to look behind Jamie and Xander. "Borg."

Everyone in the room turned to see Borg drones coming around the corner. As one the drones raised their various weapons on their bodies and began targeting.

"Down!" cried Tuvok as he dived behind a collapsed desk.

Jamie ducked behind a pillar. Bending down she picked up a hand-sized piece of rubble. With a quickness that was supplied by her bionic parts she turned and threw the rock at one of the drones. She was behind the pillar again before the rock even found its mark.

Xander cowered behind a low pile of rubble that had been part of the ceiling at one time. As shots flashed by him he looked to a spot on the floor ten feet away where the rifle that Tuvok gave him lay from where he dropped it during his previous fight with the Stormtroopers. _Great, I dropped the ball again_, thought Xander. Looking down at the helmet he held, he began to become angry. _I should have been ready for this instead of looking for collectibles_. With a quick jump up he threw the helmet at a Borg drone and dropped back down.

"Xander!" Jamie shouted. "Stay down!"

Unfortunately, the Borg began to lay a concentrated fire down on Xander's position. "What are they, nuts! It was only a helmet!" Xander looked for a way out. Seeing that the door near him was partially wedged open he began crawling toward it.

After an eternity and a close shot that left his left hand tingling he found himself safely inside the room. Out of habit of exploring caves and old crypts in the night Xander pulled out his pocket flashlight. It didn't help his confidence any to be able to immediately identify some of the items and machines in the room as being torture devices.

**Deep Space Nine**

**Captain's Quarters**

"Ensign Nog to Captain Sisko!"

Sisko sighed. He was tired. It had been a long shift with many new and troublesome situations of huge proportions. The Kai had been very demanding over any matters she could think of. The admirals had been less problematic but had, nonetheless, made their presence felt. On top of it all he had just handed over position of command for this shift over to Kira two minutes earlier but Nog couldn't have known that. All he wanted to do right now was to go to his quarters and take a sonic shower. And see the video clip that Kira had sent to him with the warning that he should only watch it in private. "What is it, Nog?"

"The Borg are attacking!" exclaimed the excited young Ferengi.

"What! Computer, Red Alert!"

Klaxons began sounding and flashing throughout Deep Space Nine. Somehow through the noise Sisko was able to make out Rom's voice. "Captain! Captain! Not the station! In the Q-portal! The team Q had sent over! They are being attacked!"

"Computer. Stand down from Red Alert." Sisko squeezed the bridge of his nose in an attempt to compose himself. "Nog?"

"Uh, yes captain?"

"In the future, try to use a little more discretion and clarification during tense moments."

"But captain, you're the one who put-"

"Nog! Just take the advice. I'll be down in a minute."

"So, if I understand correctly, your race procreates by draining a person of their blood and then giving the victim some of your blood. Death then takes temporary hold of the body for a few hours until it revives as one of your race with all the memories and personality traits of the host-body that has been killed. You then continue to exist by taking the life essence of others to feed on."

Spike shook his head. "You're looking at the whole thing like you could fit it into a petri dish and study it. The whole getting the dead bloke's memories is like a tree growing from the nutrients in the soil. The tree doesn't care. It just takes what's there in the soil and uses it." Spike paused to take out one of his cigarettes. "As for the life essence thing. It's the blood, man. It's what we live off of. It's what I was made to consume. And not just human either. Some of the things around here are proving positively delightful." He looked at the young Vulcan as he lit his cigarette. "You're quite a good vintage yourself," he added. "But the vampire thing is more than that. It's the whole meanness of it all."

"I do not understand."

Spike sighed. "You know. Taken over and basically debasing everything that this mortal shell represented. Vampires have a distinctive natural ability toward evil. Every trust, every hope, every dream not only shattered but perverted. The path that could have been taken has suddenly been left behind for the entrance ramp to the highway to hell."

Vorik tilted his head in confusion.

Spike paused. "Do they believe in God where you're from?"

Vorik nodded. "While all sentients may not agree that there is a Divine Maker or what the Maker's purposes were when he made so many diverse creatures, every sentient species the Federation has made contact with has records in their past of a Creator Entity belief. Some species still give worship to the Almighty while others have abandoned such thought and found other concepts to worship. A Vulcan team of delegates have been finding strong comparisons in history among all the worlds we have come in contact with concerning this Creator Entity. It has been theorized that-"

"Hey!" Spike snapped, "It was a simple question. Now, where was I going with this. Oh yeah, this Creator Entity as you call him creates a whole bunch of angel types. Later he decides to create mortals. Some of the angels become rather put out about it. Probably jealous of the spoiled newcomers or some such. Sibling rivalry and all that. These jealous angels become evil to the core. Real nasty bunch. Anyway, after some roughing around some of the rowdy angels, now changed by the whole experience and called demons, are getting hauled off to hell. On the way, one of the bad boys takes some of his evil nature and passes it on to some nearby humans. And so it begins. These newly born vampires began tearing into the humans around them drinking their fill and leaving them for dead."

"What I do not understand is why do you kill your prey. Wouldn't it be more feasible to take just a small amount of blood from a number of donors than to kill one every time you feed?"

Spike shook his head. "You just don't get it, do you? We kill because we want to. We torture because we like to. It's who we are."

Vorik looked at Spike confused again.

Spike paused to take a drag from his cigarette. "Look, it's a demonic thing. You wouldn't understand."

"I see. I think." Vorik stretched his legs from where he was standing next to the tricorder linkup with the wall console. He wanted to concentrate on the tricorder more but self-preservation was more necessary so he was keeping his attention focused on Spike. "How is it that you, a predator, are able to travel with a predator of your kind, the Slayer?"

Spike chuckled. "She may be a predator of my kind, mate, but she is not a predator of me. I've hunted her just as much as she's hunted me. I've even killed two slayers before her."

"As you have said." Vorik was intrigued. "So you are not concerned about her?"

Spike smiled wolfishly. "Not at the moment." He stretched his legs where he lay down on the floor. "Though I admit she has been quite the adversary and I really admire her tenacity. It's like my sire always said before he became all goody-goody, 'Nothing like a good opponent to keep you sharp'."

"Yet you don't always look at her as an opponent."

Spike gave Vorik sharply. "What do you mean?"

"You have feelings for her."

Spike snorted. "Yeah! I feel I want her dead."

"Of a romantic nature," Vorik corrected.

"Have you gone daft in the head?" protested Spike.

"I am a Vulcan. We have limited telepathy," explained Vorik. "Though I did not seek this information your mind broadcasted your feelings every time you spoke of her."

A duel beeping from the console and tricorders drew Vorik's attention away from the flustered vampire. He turned to the tricorder not trusting nor understanding all of the buttons on the console. He typed a few commands to realign the information then began adjusting it to see if it could be useful to them or if the entire effort was wasted. The plans of various levels became more focused as well as showing some of the obstacles in them. Some of those obstacles were more problematic then others.

The young Vulcan quickly punched a few more buttons to relay the information to Tuvok and Data, then looked to the problems immediately approaching.

Suddenly, Spike pinned Vorik to the console wall. The tricorder setup fell to the ground breaking. Vorik tried to move but found he couldn't. "What are you doing?"

Spike maintained his hold as he moved to get closer to Vorik's neck. "What does it look like I'm doing. I'm a bloody predator so I'm preying. No one's tellin' Buffy I have feelings! Especially for her!"

Vorik struggled but even with his Vulcan strength Spike's grip was to secure. "We don't have time for this. Any minute now- -Aaarrrgh!"

The two men wrestled but it was futile for the one. Vorik couldn't move and was rapidly loosing any strength to do so. Spike held on. He knew his prey was his, but he couldn't let up now. Any move Vorik made Spike countered all while keeping himself attached to Vorik's neck. Spike was much more experienced at this sort of thing than Vorik was.

Because of his concentration on his meal Spike was totally unprepared for energy bolt to the head.

Two Stormtroppers lifted Spike's body off of a bleeding and very weakened Vorik. One of the Stormtroopers turned to a third coming down the hall. "Sir, This one is dead and the other needs medical attention if we are going to interrogate him."

The senior Stormtrooper surveyed the area around him. Then as if looking down at a repugnant bug he addressed the barely conscious Vulcan. "We appear to have saved your life. You had better have information to make that worth our while." Nodding to one of the Stormtroopers, that Stormtrooper dragged Vorik to his feet and led him away.

The higher-ranking Stormtrooper came over to one of the Stormtroopers that had been searching the corpse that was Spike. The subordinate shook his head when he didn't uncover anything noteworthy then stopped and pointed to the wall. "Sir, there is something near that console."

The leader gently lifted the remains of the tricorder in his hands. His aide quickly provided a bag to put the broken items in and then carried them away to be examined. The Stormtrooper in charge took one more look around the room then exited. All that was left in the room was the body of Spike which was dead.

Steve batted the Borg down with his bionic arm then quickly kicked behind him to send another drone flying. The energy rifles had given up being effective for him awhile ago. True, there was a device to change the energy signature every time the Borg adapted to the new frequency of the weapons they were using, but now the Borg drones were so close that Steve felt it essential that someone take out the closer drones by hand. And the drones did not seem to want to put up personal force fields between them and the ones they wanted to assimilate. So far he and Ralph were it for coming into physical contact with the enemy. Everyone else was busy covering them with phaser fire.

Down the hall four more drones came to aid the seven drones still functioning. "Where do they keep coming from?" he asked of no one in particular.

A red blur of motion to his right caught Steve's eye. Ralph had done a super-speed trip for ten feet to drop a drone that had gotten the drop on Steve. "I think they've begun to assembly-line them. Look at that one's hand," he said while lifting the one Borg up and tossing him toward to of the newer drones coming in the room. One of the drone's arm had on Stormtrooper armor. And as the two drones came round the rubble pile blocking the way the Stormtrooper leg armor could be seen on both drones.

"Mr. Austin, you must take cover. You are making yourself too available as a target," noted Tuvok as he took aim and shot at another drone. The drone's shielding took the blunt of the blast and Tuvok immediately punched in a new frequency for his weapon. Taking aim again he noticed that the drone had fired a small projectile toward Steve. "Look out!"

Steve turned in time to see the projectile explode at his feet. The concussion force of the weapon threw him into the air and bounced him off the wall. Reeling from the impact he just listened for a moment to the sound of the fighting while the fog parted in his head. Feeling some clarity he looked up to see a Borg drone leaning over him. Two long, thin tubes came shooting out of the Borg's hand heading toward Steve's chest. Thanks to his bionic reflexes Steve blocked the two tubes with his right arm. Kicking out with both feet he hurled the drone across the room into another drone incapacitating both.

Rising to his feet Steve immediately noticed his right arm going limp at his side. "Must have hit something vital," he muttered. Looking up across the hall he could see Ralph pulling a Borg drone away from the frustrated FBI agent who had been trying to beat it with his fists. Somewhere off to the side he could make out Jamie's voice calling out to him but he couldn't make out what she was saying. On his other side he noticed two drones barring down on him. Turning to face them he tried to bring up his bionic arm. Suddenly he found himself flat on his back with his arm like a lead weight. _It's all frozen up_, he thought as he tried to move his arm again. Looking up he saw the two Borg above him. From somewhere he could here Jamie screaming his name.

"Pardon me, do you boys have a permit for that cyborg?" Stepping out from the doorway Xander leveled his bowcaster at one of the drones and fired. The drone hit by the energy quarrel tumbled into its fellow drone effectively knocking them both to the ground.

Xander nodded. "Not too shabby." Aiming his weapon down the hall he managed to shoot down two more drones before the Borg adapted their defense shields. "Well, that was fun while it lasted." Noticing one of the fallen drones near him getting up he added, "Can't you guys take a hint!" He swung the weapon in his hands in a wide arc bashing the end into the drone's head. Suddenly Xander felt like he had been hit by a freight train. Before he could tell what was happening he felt he was spinning and bounced off one of the walls.

Opening his eyes Xander could make out the fuzzy image of Tuvok bending over him. Then he remembered being shot. He sat up patting himself down looking for a wound. "I can't believe they shot me! Me! I'm not supposed to get shot! I'm one of the good guys! They shouldn't be shooting at me!"

"Regain control of yourself, Xander. You're babbling."

"Babbling? I'm not babbling! I'm rambling! Entirely different concept!"

"You are a very fortunate young man. This chest armor you put on most likely saved your life."

Xander gave a weak smile. "Hey, I'm bad."

Tuvok raised an eyebrow. "You are in pain?"

"No, I mean bad like I'm really, really good."

"Truly you are a unique individual." He paused in his medical exam. "At least I hope you are."

"Thanks." Xander paused. "I think."

"Where did you find those weapons?" asked Tuvok as he administered a hypo spray.

"Uh, one of the rooms back there seems to have been a torture chamber. And, ow, I think they had a kind of trophy case of weapons that had belonged to the people they had tortured. Uh, I just grabbed some of the stuff that seemed to still be working. I figured the Borg wouldn't have defenses for those things yet."

"Impressive. Very good thinking. Especially of the chest armor. I believe it is made up of some type of light-weight energy resistant material which is why it saved your life."

Xander groaned feeling the side of his head where he had hit the wall. "Yeah, well it may not have been able to touch me but it sure packed a wallop."

Tuvok left the groaning but not seriously injured young man to catch his breath while he went to check on the other members of his hodgepodge group. He could see blond curly haired teacher dressed in the flashy and impractical red suit helping up the loud, annoying federal man. Hearing their arguments with each other Tuvok knew immediately that neither had sustained any serious injuries. Off to the side Tuvok could see Jamie ripping the sleeve off of her husband's limp arm. Seeing her face filled with fear, Tuvok hurried over. "Is there a problem?"

"I… I was checking his arm for damage-"

"I got stabbed in the arm by one of tubes the drones lash out with," Steve interrupted. He turned his arm for Tuvok to see. "What do you make of this?" The skin of his arm below his elbow had metallic veins slowly appearing on its surface. And it was spreading. "Is it bad?"

"It is not good," answered Tuvok. "You have been infected." Scanning with his tricorder Tuvok made some quick decisions. "Mr. Austin, we are fortunate that only your bionic arm was infected. The lack of any real flesh for the nano-probes to transform has greatly slowed down the transformation. However, time is of the essence if we are to keep you from becoming a Borg drone."

Steve took a breath and held it. He looked at his wife who meant everything to him standing silently in front of him her eyes filled with fear. He looked at his prosthetic arm which was becoming more and more alien as he watched it. Turning back to Tuvok he released his breath. "What do we have to do?"

"Can your arm be taken off with no harm to you?"

"Sure. With hours of surgery and a trained medical staff."

"Not soon enough. I'm afraid we shall have to try more drastic measures. Do you have any feeling in your arm?"

Steve shook his head. "It became numb and limp almost instantly."

"What are we going to do?" Jamie asked.

Tuvok took a minute to consider his options. Having decided he addressed Jamie. "Clear a space for him then help him lie down. And do not touch the infected area." Seeing the teacher and the FBI agent, Tuvok called over to them. "Mr. Hinkley, can you give us a hand here?"

Ralph and Bill let their personal discussion drop and walked over to the others. "What's going on?" asked Ralph as he watched Jamie gently lower her husband on to a cleared section of the floor.

Tuvok was making a quick survey of the medical supplies so he didn't even look up to answer. "Mr. Austin's cybernetic arm has been infected by Borg nano-probes. It must be removed. Mr. Maxwell, please take a weapon and guard the door. Try to see that we are not disturbed." Bill nodded grimfaced and was gone. "Mr. Hinkley, I will need you here."

Xander light-headedly walked over to see what the group was doing. Before he could come up with any 'Xanderese' to lighten the situation he got a good look at Steve Austin's lower arm and the mesh of spreading metallic cobwebs slowly spreading from the two entry holes. "This is bad," commented Xander. Looking up at Tuvok he added, "In the 'not-good' sense of the word."

Tuvok silently laid out the medical instruments most likely to be needed. Pausing only to make another quick scan of Steve's arm, Tuvok turned to address the others. "We don't have much time. I've administered a local anesthetic to his shoulder but I do not think it is wise to administer a sedative due to the amount of enemy activity in the area."

"Enemy activity in the area? Whoa! News flash at 11." Xander sat down near the wounded man and risked giving him a grin.

Tuvok frowned. "Xander, I could use your assistance as well."

Xander had been absent-mindedly been poking the charred area where his chest plate armor had been hit. "Huh? Uh, I don't know if that's such a good idea. My brain is still feeling a little fuzzy." He paused. "But I'll do what I can."

"I just need you to sit there and be silent. We can not have any distractions during the proceedings. Understood?"

Xander opened his mouth to defend himself. But then noticed Jamie taking Steve's good hand and kissing it. He also noticed the tears she was only barely keeping contained. Looking at Tuvok he nodded.

Tuvok nodded back. "Fine. Now, Mr. Hinkley, if you would place your hands here and here on the uninfected areas of Mr. Austin's upper arm."

A little confused, Ralph just did as he was told. Maybe laying hands on the injured is part of some Vulcan religious belief, he thought. "Okay, now what?"

"I want you to use your strength to pull his arm in half."

"What?" cried Ralph and Jamie. Xander, for his part, was speechless.

"He's right."

Jamie looked down at her husband in horror. "Steve, the shock-"

He smiled. "I'll have to bare it. I don't have any other choice. You know that." Steve looked at Ralph. "Do it."

Ralph gave a heavy sigh. He reached down and got a good grip on the arm in front of him. He took another breath and reminded himself that it was not a real human arm he was going to tear in half. He took another breath trying not to notice how similar it appeared to a real arm. He gripped down hard with his fingers so that they pierced the synthetic skin. Metal and few wires showed underneath the skin flaps. A few sparks arose. Ralph stopped as Steve took a deep intake of air. Seeing that Steve was in no real pain Ralph continued. Let's do this quick and hopefully right, he thought. With a quick twist and pull, Ralph separated the infected part of the artificial limb. "Done." He quickly stepped out of Tuvok's way and tossed the broken limb aside.

Tuvok scanned the remaining section of the arm for any nano-probes before checking on the wellbeing of his patient. Jamie held Steve down as he suffered a few minor convulsions while Tuvok continued his exam. Finally he reassured her that though there was some trauma Steve's body was sound. "All we need to do now is to find something to trim the area of its more jagged edges and he should be ready to move."

Kate Pulaski stood stunned. She had just come around the corner down the hall where she had made some makeshift, yet much needed, facilities to find everything not as she left it. Vorik was missing. The device that Vorik had put together was also missing. And Spike lay on the floor dead.

Then he moved.

Pulaski jumped into medical mode. Hurrying over, she knelt down by the wounded vampire's side. Pulling out an instrument she began scanning him for injuries. "Where does it hurt?" she asked more to distract him than learn what her instruments would tell her faster.

"Uhh, bloody…oh, didn't see the wankers." He opened an eye to take in Pulaski. "What are you doing with that thing?"

She continued to study her instruments. "Trying to find out how injured you are. But according to my readings you seem to be getting better by the moment. At least as far as I can tell about your physiology."

"Guess you can't keep a bad guy down," Spike commented as he carefully got to his feet. Gingerly, he felt the back of his head. "What hit me, Doc?"

"These reading indicate an energy weapon. But not of Borg design." She put away her medical tricorder and studied the surroundings. "Wish Vorik hadn't cannibalized my regular tricorder." Looking at the ground is when she noticed the specks of green blood. Glancing at Spike she could see the slight green stains that hadn't been there before._ He had done it again. He had attacked Vorik_, she thought. Her fist flew out and landed hard on Spike's nose. "You monster!"

Spike fell back on the ground he had just vacated. "Ya broke my nose! Why'd ya break my nose?"

"What did you do to Vorik? Where is he?" she demanded with her phaser pointed at the vampire.

"I don't know where he is," answered Spike. Swiftly, he kicked out with his leg knocking the phaser across the room. Jumping to his feet he lashed out with his fist breaking Kate's nose in return then pushed her hard against the wall. Gently rubbing his nose he looked at her with his vampiric face. "Hurts, don't it."

Dr. Pulaski had tears in her eyes from the pain but she did nod to Spike's question.

"Hang on, wait a minute." Spike pondered a moment. "Something doesn't seem right." He looked over at the Starfleet doctor. "Here," he said stepping forward. "You're one of those mad scientist types, right?"

Pulaski had managed to get hold of her fear and glared at him. "I'm a doctor, not a mad scientist."

Spike shrugged. "Close enough. I need to do an experiment." Seeing her flinch he reassured her, "Oh, don't worry, it will most likely hurt me much more than it will hurt you." Seeing her look of confusing he threw another punch at her hitting her in the nose again. "Oops! Guess my hypothesis was wrong." He felt the back of his head again. "Based on that little demonstration I believe I can safely hypothesis that the little chip in my head that has been hampering my style has been fried by whoever or whatever shot me in the head. You know what this calls for?"

Kate Pulaski whimpered as Spike held her pinned against the wall.

"This calls for a drink!"

Spike grabbed her and pulled her close. Forcing her head to the side he sank his teeth in his first human in over a year. At first he took deep gulps but then he slowed in order to savory the taste. Her hits with her arms grew weaker and weaker. Spike's thoughts were on Buffy. _Buffy the Vampire Slayer_, he thought. _She'll stake me if I kill this twit_. Spike slowed in his sucking. _She'll at least try_. For some reason as much as he enjoyed exchanging blows with the Slayer he would much rather take her for a moonlit stroll. _All right, I'll leave this doctor alive. But that Vorik is a different mat-_

Suddenly, a lance of pain shot through his left shoulder just over his heart. Dropping Pulaski's limp body Spike's first expectation was of the Slayer. Spinning round he found not the Slayer, but a woman covered over with black rubber and metal parts. One of those metal parts was over her left arm and had two sharp prongs sticking out of it. "Don't know who you are, but you just made a big mistake," muttered Spike, "I'm feeling my oats again." Spike lashed out grabbing the unresisting woman. He pulled her close and snapped her neck.

Spike dropped the new body next to the body of Pulaski. "You shouldn't interrupt a person's meal. It's not polite." It was then Spike noticed the jagged metal that Pulaski's body had fallen on and was protruding through her abdomen. "Oops. I'm all butterfingers today." Looking closer he could tell that the good doctor had expired. "Gonna be fun explaining that to everyone 'specially with my teeth marks on her throat. Oh well, accidents happen."

Spike winced at the wound the female drone had caused. "Right through the leather. Not considerate at awwwooowww!" Spike doubled over in pain. Pain crept like knives under his skin. With his left arm he ripped down on his T-shirt exposing part of his chest. Spike stared in horror as metallic veins began slowly spreading down his body. "Bloody-"

Down the hall other people dressed in black and metal could be seen walking toward him. Their movements reminded him of some cultists and zombies he'd seen. He knew there was no reasoning with them. Staggering he turned and ran as fast as he could trying to ignore the growing pain.

"Data to Tuvok. Did you receive the complete readout of the Borg's location?" asked Data through his comm-badge.

"Affirmative," came Tuvok's response.

"Hey, cool. How did you do that?" Buffy was looking over Data to see where the voice was coming from.

Data tilted his head to the side. "It is a form of two-way communication over long distances. I believe you have some similar devices in your time period."

Buffy was not so easily satisfied with that answer. "Yeah, but where I come from we at least have to put the phone to our head to talk into it. So how do you do it?"

"You have to-" Data did a double tilt of his head before continuing. "I will explain later. Right now it is imperative that I coordinate our efforts with those of the other teams."

"Oh, okay." Buffy bit her lip. She was used to being the main contributing factor in everything. Here she was just another grunt on the front lines. She looked up to see Data staring at her strangely. _Course_, she reminded herself, _he stares at everybody strangely_. "Um, I'll go see if Rom is getting anywhere with our robot friend."

Data watched as the young blond girl wandered over by the Ferengi studying the droid from a safe distance. "Sorry for the interruption, Tuvok. Is there any further communication from Vorik."

"None," answered Tuvok. "We must continue without them."

"Agreed. The Borg seems to have established themselves near a failing power generator of some type. Most likely to repair and modify it to suit their needs. I show on the G-14 grid an access from which my group should be able to gain entry to the area the Borg has set up for their hive. Your group could-"

Just then Data could hear Xander in the background. "Hey, cool. How did you do that?"

Quark ceased his whimpering as soon as the Stormtroopers left the room. Rising from his corner he hurriedly moved to the limp form on the bed. Giving the Vulcan a quick once over taking in his bruises and bandaged neck he began prodding him awake. "C'mon, c'mon. Come to already."

After some rather annoying encouragement the Vulcan gave into the persistent Ferengi and opened his eyes. "I take this to mean…uh, that we are not dead yet."

Quark eyes widened. "What's this? A Vulcan telling jokes? Maybe it is the end of everything."

Vorik reached a tentative hand up to feel the bandage on his throat. "It is one of the habits I have been trying to pick up while on Voyager."

"Yeah, well, everybody needs a hobby. Take better care of yourself and you might get a chance to get good at it."

Sitting up slowly, Vorik took in the room around him. "What is our current situation?"

"What is our situation? We've been captured by the local military goons. And let me tell you they are rough with their prisoners. We gotta get outta here!"

Vorik took in Quark's battered appearance. One eye was swollen shut, both ears were covered in bruises and he was cradling his left arm. Looking around him Vorik could see that they most likely were on the same level as before. The room was in as much disarray and falling apart like all the others he had seen here. In all, the room was almost in better shape than Quark. The authorities had evidently made temporary use of one of the many abandoned rooms on these lower levels to store the prisoners in while they searched for more intruders. That meant they had an opportunity to escape. "Quark, do you know how many guards are watching us?"

"Eh, there's two of them. About two meters from the door. They're talking about their emperor being at a place called Endor and something called a Skywalker. Whatever it is it's got them real nervous. Anyway, they think we're part of some rebel saboteurs group trying to destroy their defense capabilities. When they had me-"

"That will suffice," interrupted Vorik. "Any sign of the others?"

Quark shook his head. "Just you and me."

"What we need to do now is to find a means of escape."

"Oh, is that all? And here I thought you were going to bring up something difficult," Quark answered snidely.

Vorik took a minute to gather his strength. Dealing with such irrational beings like this Ferengi could be tiring on the best of days. And today had not been the best of days. "Quark, it is imperative that we escape and reunite with our teammates."

Quark sighed. "I know. I just didn't want to do it alone."

Vorik nodded. "You are not alone now."

"Fine." The Ferengi walked to one of the corners and began moving some of the junk piled up there. "You can go in first."

"Go in first where?"

"Ventilation system. The guards didn't do a very good job of searching this place before locking us in here or they would have found it."

Vorik was surprised. "You found an escape route and you are still here? Why?"

Quark pulled the last of the objects exposing hole into the ventilation shaft that had had a vent covering at one time. "And go in there alone? Do you have any idea how many things are scurrying around in there? My ears tell me lots!"

"Q!" Picard stormed into Quark's bar. People sitting around at the bar or at the table watching the events on the screens Q had provided all turned to see what was going on now. Bypassing a tall ensign, Picard could see Q empathetically gesturing as he tried to explain something to Captain Janeway and Riker. "Q!" he shouted. The bar became silent as everybody pretended not to be eavesdropping.

Q froze like a deer caught in the headlights of a semi-truck as Picard walked up to him. Janeway bit her lip and took a step back. Picard turned to Riker. "Is it true?" he asked.

Riker looked down but nodded.

"Jean-Luc, it wasn't my fault!" exclaimed Q.

Picard swung hard and connected his fist with Q's nose, thus knocking him down.

Q, unhurt but speechless, stared up at Picard in shock.

The whole room took a breath and held it.

Janeway came and took Picard's arm. "It won't bring her back."

Picard looked over this female captain who he had heard of but never really met. "She deserved better." Picard took a deep breath trying to regain his composer before the crew. "She was a doctor…and a friend. One of the few I could confide in." He looked Janeway in the eyes. "I don't take loosing someone like that very easily."

Janeway gently gripped his shoulder. "No one ever should."

"Captains." Both looked to see Admiral Paris barring down on them followed by Admiral Bones still being aided by Lt. Barclay. "I realize this is a bar but that is no reason to start a brawl." Seeing that Picard had calmed down and that Q had edged over to the bar away from Picard yet never taking his eyes off of the captain. Q's look of shock and hurt was beginning to bother the admiral but he felt he could let it be for now and he hoped someone else would deal with the hurt self-proclaimed omnipotent being. Thinking of what had just occurred brought Admiral Paris's attention to the terrified audience. "Picard. Janeway. I think we should have these people leave the bar. Nothing is being accomplished by having them here and they are probably being exposed to too much sensitive information."

"No. They need to stay." Rembrandt Brown turned from where he sat on his stool at the bar. "They need to get an idea of what to expect if they are sent out there on one of these mission trips." He took a sip of his drink. "I've been jumping from alternate world to alternate world for a while now and let me tell you- it is good to have an idea of what you can expect." He waved his arm at the pictorial portals that Q had provided as he continued. "These may not be much for getting them ready for what they will experience but trust me, mister, at least they can learn from how the others do and see just how unusual it can be." Looking the admiral directly in the eye, Rembrandt stated his main point. "Learning from other peoples experiences can be a lot better and safer than to have to learn it for yourself with no experience."

The admiral was rather at a loss for words from this correction by an apparent civilian. It was Janeway who came to his rescue. "This is Rembrandt Brown. One of the 'sliders' we talked about who were stuck going from alternate reality to alternate reality. He was in Sickbay during our meeting so we didn't get to meet him."

"I see." Turning to Rembrandt, the admiral could see that the man was hurt, tired, worried and also for some reason he could tell that he wasn't where he should be. The admiral's own thought were in turmoil over the angry words he had had with his son and future daughter-in-law at dinner. "Maybe you do have a point. However, the senior staff also needs this information. We can't have a private meeting evaluating all of this while the rest of Starfleet sits around us in a bar watching videos."

"Uh, pardon me," came a soft spoken and very hesitant voice. "But, um, the holo-suites here should make more than adequate places for you to meet." Lt. Barclay stood there next to Admiral Bones and looked like he had regretted saying anything.. "Sir," he added almost forgottenly. For a moment it looked like Admiral Bones was supporting Barclay instead of the other way around.

"Yes, fine," commented Admiral Paris. "We'll do that." Turning to face the crowd he added, "Anyone else have something to add since we seem to be so informal at the moment."

"I do." The Doctor walked in through the doors of the bar and sat down near Rembrandt and Morn. Sweeping his gaze through the people in the bar he could tell he was right before he even explained himself. "You need to make it mandatory that people use their time to sleep to actually sleep. We don't know when we will be sending the next batch out but I think it would be best for everyone if they were well rested. Wouldn't you agree, Admiral Paris?"

The admiral frowned. Being an admiral meant that very few people could tell you what to do, however no one seems to have explained that to this strangely attired man. "The Doctor is right. You all know what shift schedules you have been assigned. If you are cutting a few hours off your sleep time so you can watch events here, than I want you to leave. Get your rest. God knows you may need it tomorrow."

There were groans and more than a few guilty looks as a good third of the crowd slowly rose and began to meander toward the door, chatting to different people as they went.

Riker took the moment to step over by Deanna. She had just said good night to a Bolian woman who she had been sitting with so Riker decided that now may be a good time to try talk to her. "Deanna."

Deanna looked up. _Oh_, she though, _so he is going for the public encounter again_. "I'm not ready to talk yet, Will."

"Deanna. Things are pretty dangerous right now. I'd hate to not make peace with you."

_Now he goes for the 'this could be the last day of our life' speech_, she muttered to herself, _Doesn't he know I do counseling for a living_. "Not now, Will. Please."

"Deanna…" His eyes turned soft. "I'm sorry."

_I will not be manipulated. I am angry. Puppydog eyes do not change what he did._ "I'm not convinced." She turned away and marched to the door. And just to make sure she discouraged him she deviated slightly in her path to walk over to Rembrandt to check on him and see how he was handling everything.

Q sat watching as the admirals and captains began filing up to the holo-suits to have their impromptu meeting over the death of Doctor Kate Pulaski. He was interested to note that the Kai, the Bajoran religious leader who he had had come along, was going up with the other leaders. _Maybe to offer some religious condolences_, he thought. He doubted it though. The Kai didn't seem to be the type to comfort others. The other Starfleet personnel were ignoring him but giving a wide berth from where he sat. Needless to say the hand on his shoulder surprised him. What surprised him even more was who the hand belonged to. "Guinan?"

"So where's Q2?"

Q looked around the room. "Oh, probably off laughing somewhere at all this."

Her voice, like her eyes, was soft, kind and to the point. "You figure it out yet?"

Q was confused. "What?"

"What the Continuum is trying to teach you. Have you figured it out yet? Have you learned your lesson?"

"What? To be considerate of lesser lifeforms?"

Guinan shook her head. "I really don't think that is what the Q Continuum was really aiming for, do you?"

"No," he admitted.

"So what do think they are trying to teach you?" she persisted gently.

Under normal circumstances he would be terrified or at least very ill at ease to have Guinan anywhere near him. But right now as he watched her sit down next to him it didn't bother him a bit. If anything he felt a little reassured. "I don't suppose you could give me a clue?"

"That bad, huh?" Guinan chuckled. "Well, if I was to hazard a guess, I would have to say it had to do with your hazardous pranks and the consequences of them."

"How was it hazardous?" he exploded. "I had everything under control until they interfered. If anyone is to blame it is-"

"Who caused the Borg to be informed about Earth and the Federation."

"Uh, me. When I brought the Enterprise to a Borg vessel. But I separated them soon after."

"Yes," nodded Guinan. "After the Borg had learned about the Federation and its location. In your own words you warned Picard that he would meet again with the Borg someday. You see, the Borg are always exploring new area. But thanks to you the Borg knew right away what was here so they went directly toward it. You are the reason for the Borg coming into Federation space. You gave them the information and they used it." Leaning closer to Q she whispered the next part. "Now that the Borg have this 'sliding' technology you had better believe that they will use it. Even if you take the technology away from them, the Borg are bound to try other ways to get to parallel universes. It's their nature to spread and assimilate."

Q wasn't having any of it. "So why go to all these extremes? Why limit me like this? Making me pander to the wishes of others. I should be able to make everything alright with a snap of my fingers."

"That's just it." Guinan pointed out. "You didn't care that you were mucking around with the well-being of the multiverse. So the Continuum chose to use something you had showed you cared for before."

"I don't understand."

Guinan sighed. _How do you tell someone who is selfish, egotistical and thoughtless that his weakness is that he cares_, she thought. "I think that the Continuum is hoping you will learn your less through loss."

"Loss? Loss of what?"

"Over the past couple of years by our timeline you have showed a great interest and sometimes even appreciation for some of the crewmembers aboard the Enterprise, Deep Space Nine and I guess Voyager."

"So."

Guinan sighed. Q wasn't making this easy. _How can he claim to be so much smarter than us and yet be so dumb_, she thought. "So the Continuum is putting you in the spot of having to send some of those you care about on these missions in hopes of your gaining some respect for the sacrifices they will make in straightening out your problem."

Q froze. "You mean people are **suppose** to die doing this?"

Guinan nodded. "Going up against the Borg? That is usually what happens."

"Just so I will care?" Q was stunned. "But that's so unfair!"

"Tell me about it." Guinan looked up at the viewscreens Q had created. "Speaking of unfair, looks like they have finally gotten around to facing the Borg as an entire group."

**Bill Maxwell**

Bill fired two more shots before ducking down behind his covering. _These bozos are really starting to get to me_, he thought. Entering the Borg infested area had been easy. The Borg had ignored them even as the two teams came together and walked toward the generator. It was when they had passed a number of makeshift assimilation chambers and finally gotten within sight of the generator that the Borg all turned to them and gave them their undivided attention.

Maxwell had counted over fifty Borg drones before he gave up. It was just too difficult to keep count when they kept walking in from other areas or got shot down by someone on his side. The majority of the new drones seem to be made up the fascist soldiers of this world. "Guess it wasn't too much of a change over for them," he muttered as he shot down a former Stormtrooper who had had his left arm and eye replaced but retained his military armor over the rest of his body. Tuvok had explained to him earlier that the Collective would most likely make more major adjustments to the drones once they had established themselves more fully and had adequate assimilation chambers. The thought made Bill sick. There were a few alien races present but these were all were wearing rags which indicated they had been hiding down below the city for years to keep away from the military government.

Two of the more bizarrely patterned drones had to have been giant rat-like vermin the size of a water buffalo that the Borg had stumbled upon and absorbed. "Geez, these guys'll sign up anybody." One of the behemoth rodents was already scampering his way so Maxwell took careful aim to put it out of its misery. "Oh Man!" His shots were stopped by the force field privy to all Borg drones. Reaching to adjust the phaser's energy pattern the unfamiliar slipped in his hand and fell into a hole in the rubble at his feet. "Fine. Be that way." Maxwell pulled his gun from his holster and shot the giant rat-drone through the skull. "Ah, mother would be proud!"

Noticing the other Borg-rat coming toward him Maxwell smiled. "Go ahead, punk. Make my day." Saying his favorite line he shot the drone in the head as well. At least he tried to. Instead of the rodent being shot the force field flared up and deflected the bullet, thus leaving the drone to continue on to dispatch Bill Maxwell, FBI. Bill fired again and again until he was out of bullets. Left with nothing else he began scampering backwards away from the awful fate that awaited him. As Bill watched a thin metal shaft with two prongs on it began to protrude from the drone's shoulder. "Ah, a little help here! Anybody!" Bill yelled as he hurried to move away faster.

**Tuvok**

"Ah, a little help here! Anybody!"

Tuvok looked over his shoulder to see the FBI agent trying to scramble backwards through the ruins of garbage away from the borgified creature approaching him. Tuvok fired his phaser at the creature. The creature froze for a second as if stunned, and then turned to approach Tuvok while another device appeared from one of it's shoulders. This time it was definitely a weapon. Tuvok moved the setting on his phaser way up and fired. Half of the creature lay where it had fallen, the other half was vaporized. "Resilient creature." Noting Maxwell he made an observation along with a question. "Agent Maxwell, where is your weapon."

Bill was crunched down next to the wall. "Uh, what? My weapon? Ah, you see it was like this-"

Tuvok turned and fired at two more drones. Only one went down. The other was wounded and staggered into a wall where Xander managed to finish it off. "We do not have time for a dialog. Where is your weapon?"

"I dropped it down a hole."

Tuvok frowned. "Can you retrieve it?"

"Can I retrieve it? Are you kidding? It's a war zone out here!"

"We have no choice. There are no spare weapons with modulating energy frequencies. I will cover you."

"Oh great," Bill muttered.

Tuvok kept a barrage of fire down as he and Maxwell moved over to where Bill had dropped his gun. As Tuvok kept firing at his opposition he was able to note everyone keeping the Borg spread out by keeping themselves spread out as well. The plan appears to be working so far, thought Tuvok, but anything can go wrong at any moment.

Somewhere during fiasco Xander had managed to join Tuvok in covering Maxwell. Xander looked down at Bill groping his hand down a hole. "Hey, G-man, did you drop your gun?"

Bill gave the young man a look that would have killed if he had been able. It was Tuvok who distracted them. "Xander, when you are not saving your own life see if you can take out some of the opposition that our teammates are facing." Saying this Tuvok shot one of the two drones that had been grappling with Jamie Sommers.

"This is pointless," growled Maxwell getting up from the hole he had been searching. "The hole goes down to the level underneath us. I'm weaponless."

"Here. Take mine." Xander tossed the Federal agent his phaser.

**Xander Harris**

Xander pulled out from his makeshift duffel bag two of the weapons he had found earlier. _Well, I would have had to try them out before I could use them at home anyway. Might as well use them here_. In one hand he held a small blaster that fit in the palm of his hand. In the other he held a dart gun of some type.

Moving to where he could use a fallen section of the wall for a shield he set down his duffel bag made from Stormtrooper armor and began to take aim. Instead of firing, the palmgun made a fizzling sound. _Not a good thing_, thought Xander as he chucked the weapon into a doorway where Borg drones were still entering. The resulting explosion sealed the doorway but also made the young collector have second thoughts about wanting to use his new found toys. "Might as well use them. It's not like I got much chance to survive this anyway." With a fresh change of heart Xander switched hands with the dart gun. "At least this shouldn't blow up in my face." Letting out his breath he hadn't know he had been holding, Xander leaped up and fired a shot. Then another. And another. After a moment one drone dropped, then another.

It was the 'Hey!' that made him stop shooting. Ralph Hinkley held up the offending dart accusingly at Xander and then tagged it in the drone he had been battling, which dropped almost at once. "Watch it, will you!"

"Um, sorry." _Glad he's invulnerable_. "Keep this up and people will be wondering what side I'm on," he commented to himself. Shoving the dart gun back in the duffel bag, he brought out a different instrument. "Well, if at first you don't succeed; try, try again." Igniting his lightsaber he stood up to face the Borg. "Time to get up close and personnel." He hesitated. "I forgot. That's what the Borg want." Looking back at the duffel bag then at the lightsaber. "As much as I hate to say it - and my few options leave me no choice - what a way to go!"

**Data**

The android pulled the extension off the drone's arm. The drone struck with his other arm without hesitation. Instead of staggering, Data reached out and pulled out a handful of necessary components from the drone's chest. Even as the drone fell Data kicked out at another drone smashing its borgified arm against the wall. Pushing the second drone backwards, Data bent down and retrieved the first drone's disconnected appendage. Kneeling down, Data used the weapon built in the cybernetic prosthetic limb to shoot the second drone.

Taking 2.4567 seconds to gain his bearing in regards to his teammates and their goal, Data theorized that they still had a 36.735942 percent chance of obtaining their objective. A 9.71968 percent chance of succeeding without loss of life to any of his teammates. Though the odds were low, the more drones that they managed to take out and the closer they got the better the odds became.

A bleep of frustration sound behind him. Data turned to see what the dilemma was. "I'm sorry. Just one moment." Data grabbed one of the drone bodies out of the way of the little droid. "Your path is clear now. Please continue forward. Remember not to draw attention to yourself. That includes not using your welding extension as a weapon."

A series of whistles, toots and bleeps followed after the droid. "Hmm," pondered Data. "That was rather rude.In addition, you should not that I was not built that way."

Out of the edge of his vision he noted that Rom was struggling with a drone that had him pinned to the ground. Taking out his phaser from its holster he fired.

**Rom**

Rom stared with his mouth agape as he panted. The drone that had been about to impale him with nano-probes suddenly fell over on it's side. Then Rom saw the blaster wound in the drone's side. Looking to where the weapon had been fired from, Rom saw Data nod to him from across the room. "Thanks." Picking up his weapon from off the floor, Rom hid behind one of the nonfunctional computer terminals. "I can't believe that Nog joined Starfleet to do this kind of stuff. This is horrible!" He took a shot at one of the drones near him but only managed to wing it. As the drone began to right itself, Rom took careful aim and shot it down. "That makes six for me." _I'm counting now. Why am I counting. Would Nog be counting?_

A blast went off over his head. Ducking down Rom noticed that he was still in this drone's line of fire. Suddenly, the drone flew into one of the walls and stopped halfway through it. Rom breathed a sigh of relief when he saw the man who had done it. It was one of the people from the other team that he hadn't met yet. The man with one arm. The man wobbled for a moment but then a woman was suddenly there helping him. Looking at the out-of-service drone stuck in the wall Rom was flabbergasted. "How did he do that?"

"Rom? Is that you?"

"Quark? Is that you?" Rom crawled over to a ventilation grate near the drone in the wall.

"What are you doing up there?"

"What are you doing in there?"

"I asked first," snarled Rom's brother.

"We're battling the Borg up here."

"Oh."

Rom looked around nervously at the battle around him than back down into the gloomy ventilation shaft. "Are you going to come out?"

"I'm thinking."

The grate began to move so Rom grabbed hold to help. Once he had it out of the way he was surprised to help a very pale Vulcan out of the shaft. Vorik, though gray about the lips, took immediate stock of the situation around him.

Rom called out to his brother. "Quark?"

"I'm still thinking!" snapped his brother.

**Vorik**

Though weakened from blood loss, Vorik felt his duty to Starfleet should come before his own health and safety. _Tom Paris does stunts like this all the time and manages to survive_, he thought to himself. _I wonder if I shall be as fortunate_.

Coming up behind one of the drones, Vorik noticed the completeness of Borg detail and knew that this was one of the drones that had come from his universe. A human, he surmised. Reaching out his left hand he pressed it down hard as he gripped the exposed shoulder and neck area of the Borg. To his surprise and delight, the drone dropped like a log. "Never managed to do that right before." After many months of training to use the Vulcan Nerve Pinch, Vorik had come to believe that he would never master the skill. Now… Well, anything was possible now.

"Now I just need to take one down that has a weapon I can use." Looking at all the fighting he couldn't help asking himself, "I wonder what the plan is?"

**Ralph Hinkley**

Ralph picked up a drone with a reptilian complexion by its feet. Twirling round and round at super-speed he used the drone to which he was holding to knock down the other drones attacking him. _Let's see them adapt to that!_ he thought.

A serious of phaser fire hit him in the chest. The Borg he was twirling went flying while Ralph crashed into a pile of refuse. "Great! I'm not even flying and I still have crash landings!" Looking up he saw a number of drones closing in on him. "Okay, you asked for it." Taking a deep breath, Ralph used his super-breath to knock the drones over like bowling pins. "Strike!" Getting up from the floor Ralph dusted off his hands on his cape. "Alright. Distracting the most drones and dealing with them is done." Looking around for his allies he decided that they were holding their own for now. "Okay, time for the third thing Tuvok scheduled me to do."

Turning invisible, Ralph used the super-speed that the suit he wore provided to move in and out of doorways to make sure all the drones were inside. After taking a moment to disable a few latecomers, Ralph concentrated on sealing all but one exit. Ralph began piling rubble at super-speed in front of the main egress. Some of building blocks he used were dead drones. _Some of these guys have no qualms about killing_, he thought. "I wonder how they can do it and live with themselves?" Ralph, though a devote liberal, believed in the sanctity of life. The whole issue had been the subject of many arguments for Bill and him. It was his strong belief that it was his stance on not killing that made him a candidate for the suit that the aliens had given him. On his way over to seal another door, Ralph knocked out two more drones.

**Jamie Austin-Sommers**

Jamie kicked, hit or threw something at anything resembling a Borg near her. She had always hated guns and even in this situation she didn't want to have anything to do with one. She blocked a blow from a drone unit with her arm then with a little martial arts maneuvering she twisted the drone around and put its head into the wall where it stayed and went limp. Looking down at her arm she grimaced. The plasti-skin that covered her bionic arm was showing gashes from all the wear and tear that she was putting it through. _At this rate Steve and I will both be looking for new arms_, she thought. _Rudy won't be happy with us._

Taking a moment, she looked over at Steve where he temporarily sat so he could get of a few good shots with his left hand. He had tried shooting while standing at first, however with his right arm missing his equilibrium was off, plus his body was still in shock from having his artificial arm removed. Right now his main focus was to shoot any Borg drones that looked like they might shoot at Jamie.

Picking up a scrap metal bar Jamie checked on her allies. Immediately she noticed a drone coming up behind one of her allies she had not even been introduced to yet. The tall, dark-haired man with pointy ears Jamie had immediately discerned to be very disoriented. "Hey, Big Ears, watch your back!" Jamie threw the metal bar across the room using her bionic strength. Instead of hitting the drone as she had intended the metal bar turned in mid air and impaled itself in the drone. "Lord, No! I never meant-"

Though an agent of the Office of Strategic Investigations, Jamie had never killed before. To her, death was an option that should always be avoided whether it be hers or an enemy's. The result being that even though it was an accident and she did not mean to be the death of any drones, the shock of her actions distracted her enough to be shot unexpectedly by another drone.

**Steve Austin**

"Jamie!"

Steve leaped the ten feet to where Jamie lay with a drone over her. He grabbed the drone with his left hand and swung with his-. He had forgotten about his missing arm. Off balance he let go of the drone and kicked out with one of his bionic legs. The drone crashed into another drone twenty-five feet away putting both units out of order.

Steve groaned in pain. In bracing himself he had managed to cut the palm of his hand. "This just isn't my day," he muttered. He carefully crawled over to Jamie's side. _If anything bad happens at least she knows I love her. Always have. Always will._ He was about to check for a pulse when he noticed her breathing. _She's only stunned_, he thought. This woman, his childhood sweetheart, his wife. Breathing a sigh of relief Steve looked up to see a drone bending down over them.

"I don't think so, cyber boy." Xander kicked the Borg in the head knocking it over. As the drone started to right itself Xander brought down his lightsaber. Xander took a step back. "Aw, now I see why Lucas never showed much of the wounds that were inflicted with these things in his movies. Geez."

_Oh God_, thought Steve. "He's just a boy," Steve whispered.

Xander, a little pale, turned to Steve. "He's an old man," Xander paused to look at the corpse, "when it was a man." Xander looked down at his lightsaber again. "Man, now I now why Luke Skywalker always looked so glum and serious all the time. Still," Xander pondered, "it'll be good to use against the vamps and other creatures of the night."

Steve shook his head. What has this kid been through that has made him so desensitized to such things. Suddenly, "Behind you!"

Xander turned and again cut down another drone in a style that showed lots of practice at swinging toy swords at imaginary targets. Fortunately, the unforgiving lightsaber would cut through most anything as if it were air.

Steve felt a hand on his shoulder and jumped. He lashed out with his left hand but felt it caught by someone. Flailing desperately he turned to face-.

"I am a friend. I can help you."

Steve didn't know the dark haired young man but his features resembled those of Tuvok so he just nodded.

"Can you walk?" asked Vorik.

"I'll have to." Steve took a deep breath. "Help me up, please."

Vorik helped pull him to his feet careful of his missing arm. Then he knelt down by Jamie. "I will carry the woman. You walk in front of me. The boy will have to protect us."

"Oh great," complained Xander as he shifted his duffel bag around so he could pull out what he hoped was another effective weapon.

**Quark**

"A person could get killed out here," muttered Quark. Looking at one of the drone bodies nearby he couldn't help but add, "or have something worse done to you."

"It's the only way out, brother." Rom slowly led Quark around the large room trying to avoid the drones and find someone they could join with. Quark's physical appearance had been very disturbing to Rom. The abuse that he had received at Buffy's hands had been compounded by the cruel interrogation tactics of the Stormtroopers and the vicious vermin that inhabited the ventilation shaft. He was covered in dust, cobwebs, filth, blood and one of his ears had actually swollen shut, which was causing him to be nauseous and stumble.

Quark silently growled to the world around him. "I hate this place. I really do."

"It's all right, brother. Soon it will be all over and we'll get you home and Dr. Bashir will fix you up and you'll be back in your-"

Energy discharges passed through the air right between the two Ferengi. Quark spun around and dived to the side. His head made a thunk sound when he hit something metal but he was denied unconsciousness. As his eyes cleared he began to make out the shape of what he had hit. "You!?!" He hissed and flailed out his arms in a pitifully defensive gesture.

The little droid bleeped and whistled sarcastically at Quark. Then turning away, the droid wheeled ten feet away pushing through the last bit of rubble and plugged itself into a terminal.

"What?" Quark shook his head. For a second he had wanted to know what the menacing tin can was doing. However, as long as the little droid was not bothering him, then he wouldn't bother it…for now. Quark got to his knees and closed his eyes. Listening to the battles being fought around him with his one good ear, Quark just wanted to crawl under the rubble and wait it out. He would have stayed in the ventilation shaft if his brother hadn't kept begging and the skittering of crawling things in the shaft hadn't begun to grow closer.

Suddenly a sharp cry rang out. Quark's head snapped up. "Rom?" Jumping to his feet as quickly as he was able Quark looked for his brother. Rom, terrified and defenseless, stood between the JC unit and Borg drone closing in on them. "No!"

Somehow Quark ran the short distance and tackled the drone from behind. Crashing on top of the drone, Quark began to pull every tube and component he could off of it. It was as the drone was attempting to rise that an arc welder came down upon the drone's head.

Quark jumped off the quivering body to look in astonishment at the retracting arm of the droid and the arc welder attached to it while it still ran through the data of the terminal it was connected to.

"Thanks…I think." Looking over at Rom, Quark saw that his brother was just beginning to gain control of his breathing. "You didn't get infected or anything, did you?"

Rom actually began patting himself down to check. "No," he answered meekly.

"Good. Then get over here and help me up. If another of those mechanical recruiters comes over here I'd at least like the opportunity to run away from it."

**Buffy Summers**

Block-parry-block-kick-jump-stab and another drone turned into a heap of dust and mechanical spare parts thanks to the empowering Q had done to Buffy wooden stake. _The only real difference between the Borg and vampire_, she surmised to herself, _is that all drones have to do is stab you to make you one of them. A vampire at least has to wrestle you down, drink a few pints, and then force-feed you some of its blood_. She ducked down to avoid a blow from a rather tall drone. "Course, vampires are faster." She flipped herself over the drone because it had decided it would be better to shoot her. "But then vamps usually don't go around packing energy blasters," she commented as she slammed home the stake again.

A red blur went speeding by her and began piling up garbage in front of one of the remaining entryways. "What was that?" But then it was gone to another entryway knocking over four drones in its passage. "Guess whatever it is is on our side."

A flash of light caught her eye but left totally unprepared for what she saw. Xander wielding a lightsaber against a trio of drones while protecting three wounded people. He even managed to catch one of the drones at close range with some type of flare rocket that carried it across the room. "I knew he was always trying to be heroic. Glad to see that he's finally getting it down."

It was the crunch of something being stepped on behind her that made her aware of the danger. Twirling around, she swung out with her stake only to have it knocked out of her hands. She punched out with her other hand only to have it grabbed by the drone. Her eyes widened as she saw the tubules extend from the drones other arms. "Oh boy."

**Spike**

Spike grabbed the drone's neck and savagely cracked its neck. As he stood over its body, as his body shook from the tremors of pain he was experiencing, he silently listened hoping that one of the voices in the back of his head would go silent. It didn't.

Buffy stared at her unexpected benefactor. It always came to her as a surprise when Spike would come to her rescue. But this didn't exactly look like the Spike she knew. Grayish metallic veins covered his skin and some of them seemed to be moving. "Spike, what happened to you?"

Spike turned to the foe he admired so well. His insides were crying out to him. Part of him wanted to take Buffy and drain her on the spot so that her blood would help his vampiric body heal itself from the internal damage that the nano-probes had done. Another part of him, the new part of him, wanted him to infect her with what he had, and if failing that then to kill the obstacle. Spike, however, had different plans. He carefully bent down and retrieved something from the rubbish. "Here. Don't say I, uh, I never gave you anything before."

Buffy took the object and regarded it. It was Mr. Pointy, her wooden stake. "Um, thanks."

Suddenly sirens that had not been used, tested, or even looked after in hundreds of years attempted to come to life. Everyone that had spread out during the beginning of the battle now attempted to come together and rush the one remaining entrance. Data was the last one through the doorway when Tuvok gave the order for Ralph to block this final entrance. Everyone ran down the corridor carrying the wounded or unconscious leaving Ralph to finish his task.

"Hey! Where's JC?" asked Buffy.

"He chose to stay behind," responded Data.

"What's going on anyway? How were you going to defeat all those Borg bodysnatchers? And who's JC?" Quark questioned.

"JC-2B is the little droid we found, brother." Rom panted as he ran half carrying, half dragging his brother along. "While we distracted the Borg, JC tapped into the fusion generator and is making it explode."

Quark's eyes widened. "Are you people insane?!?" Suddenly Quark was the one half dragging his brother at a much faster rate.

The explosion knocked everyone off their feet and about a couple yards further down the corridor.

Bill was the first one on his feet. "Ralph?" He looked down the hall where they had just come from. "Come on, Ralphy. Any minute about now will do." Around him everyone was slowly getting back up. "Ralph, the last thing in the world I want to do is go how and explain to your wife why you are not coming home. So you just start coming down that hall."

Oddly enough Ralph did come stumbling down the hall. Coughing and swatting his smoking clothes.

"Ralph! You're alive!" Bill rushed down to greet his friend.

Off to one side Steve and Vorik tended to Jamie. Once it was established that she was only stunned, Vorik looked after Steve's wounds. Rom, spotting the medical treatment being done, brought Quark over to be looked at as well.

Tuvok's first thought was to pull out his tricorder. "Our first course of action should be to check for signs of surviving Borg drones."

"They're all dead, mate. 'Cept the ones in here," commented Spike as he tapped his forehead.

"Hey, when did Mr. Unholier-then-thou arrive." Xander did a double take. "And what have you done with yourself. You look horrible."

"Cor, I don't need this," muttered Spike. Giving Xander a hard glare, "Listen you life school dropout, that chip in my head ain't working anymore so back off."

Out of habit, Xander took a step back. Then he remembered the small arsenal he was carrying around on his back. Buffy stepped in before Xander could reignite his lightsaber. She gave him her determined glare. "Xander, I need your help."

"You want me to shut up for now, don't you."

Buffy nodded. "Yep."

Xander looked her in the eye. "If you need anything, like someone to hold him down while you pound the-"

"I'll call for you." Buffy turned to Tuvok who seemed to be consulting with Data. "Excuse me, but do you know what's happening to Spike?"

It was Data that answered first. "At some point Spike came in contact with a drone that implanted him with Borg nano-probes. These nano-probes are the first step used to create drones. They create a network similar to a nervous system throughout the body and prepare it for further artificial implants." Data turned to regard the stricken vampire. "Usually after insemination the subject is rendered in a state of unconsciousness or paralysis leaving the new nervous system able to guide its subject to the assimilation chambers."

"Like a living zombie," commented Buffy.

Data tilted his head. "There are some comparisons to the simile you express." Data considered Spike again. "To resist such a force, you must have quite a unique system. And most likely be very painful."

Spike stood there shaking. "You have no idea, mate."

Tuvok looked up from his tricorder. "It is as I feared."

"What?" asked Buffy.

"If there is a delay in the subject-"

"Victim! I'm a bloody victim, mate!" snarled Spike.

Tuvok continued. "-victim reaching the assimilation chambers, them the nano-probes will begin the process by converting the raw genetic material of its host into the material it needs."

"This, uh, just gets better and better." Spike staggered and fell against a wall where he remained leaning. "Any good, uhh ouch, news?"

Data ignored the question. "How long has it been since the nano-probes were administer to you?"

"I dunno. Hours ago."

"Do you hear voices?" asked Data.

"How'd you know about that?" asked the vampire.

"And how do you know all the other drones are dead?"

"I just know it…somehow. The voices keep getting louder. So many of them."

Buffy looked at Spike staring out into space. Part of her felt that no one should go through such torture, but then she remembered how Spike got his name. "He's becoming one of them, isn't he?" she asked Tuvok and Data. "And he's the last drone."

"Yes," answered Tuvok.

"And there is nothing we can do to help him?"

"Not here."

"I see." Buffy swallowed but something caught in her throat. "Could you two give Spike and me a minute alone." After the two Starfleet officers moved a short distance away she took in Spike's pitiful form. _He's one of my oldest and most determined enemies and yet I feel like crying for him_, she thought. "You heard?"

"Yeah, I heard."

"Do you understand?"

Spike looked at her straight in the eyes, sweat pouring off his face. "Yeah, I understand, Slayer." He placed special emphasis on her title. He knew exactly what had to be done.

Buffy bit her lip and grabbed hold of her stake tightly.

"Ya know that Xander may not be the sharpest bloke around but he did a very fair show of himself today in that brawl. Since I won't be able to cover your back during your cemetery strolls, you might want to consider taking the lad. Needs more training but you should be able-" Spike groaned audible as a metallic vein spread through his left eye. Shaking of the pain Spike continued as best he could though his eye was starting to glow red. "And say hey to Red for me." He gasped as the skin on his left side seemed to expand and contract. "Tell her I'd bite her any day. She'd like to hear that." Spike wiped away the bloody tears that he didn't want to admit were there. "Giles…Giles was the man. Always admired him…Sort of. Well, I liked his couch and I admired his way around the books…"

"Slayer." Spike took a step away from the wall trying to stand as still as he could. "Buffy," he began again. "I just want to say that, argh, that you were the most formidable adversary I've met. Uhh, that hurts. And I mean that." He took a moment to orient himself and his last thoughts. "I wish things had worked out differently between us," Spike paused for a moment before verifying, "in a good way."

Buffy was frozen. _Tell me he isn't meaning what he clearly is meaning_, she thought. Her horror at Spike's predicament had been replaced by shock of Spike admitting he liked her. _Why is it always the dead guys that fall for me_? she thought with a bit of panic.

"I don't know if it things would have ever worked out for us, but," he smiled, "it would have been interesting to find out. 'Specially to see what your mum would have said. Well," Spike groaned as another wave of pain washed over him, "stake me already, will ya. I'm done."

For a second Buffy faltered. Even though she didn't particularly like Spike, she didn't like to take someone down that was defenseless. _I'm supposed to deal with humans that become vampires. It's not in my job description to deal with whatever vampires turn into._ But when Spike began spasming from the pain she knew it wouldn't be long now. _He's becoming something worse_, she thought. As the stake entered his heart the look on Spike's face was not one of pain, but of relief. Buffy just stood there for a moment looking at the dust at her feet. "Sometimes I really hate this job."

Q appeared in a flash. "Well, it's about time."

Buffy scowled. "Don't start with me." She went back to check on some of the others.

"What did I say?" Q asked to anyone that might be listening to him. No one was.

Xander was repacking his duffel bag trying to decide what he should give Anya and Willow and what he could keep for himself when Maxwell came up to him. "Hey kid, wanted to thank you for letting me borrow that gun of yours. You know, you're pretty good at this save the world stuff."

Xander shrugged. "Been there, done that, got the T-shirt folded up neatly at home in my dresser drawer."

Bill smiled. "Heh, I think we'd get along pretty well, kid. You ever think about becoming a Fed?"

Across the way Jamie opened her eyes to find herself being cradled by Steve. "Hey handsome."

"Hey yourself." He smiled down at her. "You had me worried there for a moment."

She touched her head a grimaced at the thought of her last memory. "Sorry. I take it that since everyone is milling around that we won?"

"Is that your first guess?"

"Well, my second guess is that we lost and that we are all just waiting around for Saint Peter to open the Pearly Gates. The only problem with that theory is that I thought the décor would look a lot better than this."

"Very perceptive. Yeah. We won."

"You know what this means, don't you?"

"Champagne?"

"That, too. I'm talking about Lamaze classes. Remember the wish?"

Steve froze. "Do you think he can actually make it possible?"

"Remember how he brought us here?"

Steve brought his wife a little closer. "Then Lamaze classes it is. But first champagne."

**Deep Space Nine**

**Orbiting Earth**

"At least we've overcome that hurdle."

"Yes, but it was only the first hurdle," pointed out Admiral Paris.

"In my book if you try to jump too many hurdles at once, you just end up on your face in the dirt." Admiral McCoy smiled. He liked having something to say. He liked it even more when somebody actually listened to him. For the past 40 years or so he had had to bellyache all the time just to be paid any attention. Now he was firmly in the mix of things if only because they couldn't get any one off the station. It was enough for him. Enough to almost feel young again.

"Can't you see that we have a major threat floating in space just 15 million miles from Earth!" snapped Paris.

Admiral Ryvid Kriing raised his hand to get the others attention. "The Q being has rendered us unable to attack the Borg ship as well as prevented the Borg from invading Earth. With that in mind we should focus our attentions on where we can make a difference."

Admiral Paris knew the Zakdorian was right, but that didn't mean he had to like it. Here was action right on his doorstep and he had to just let it sit there.

The doors to the holosuit opened causing everyone to turn.

Rembrandt Brown came in hobbling with a friendly smile. "Hi. Uh, don't know if you know me, admirals, but, uh, I'm-"

It was Admiral Ryvid Kriing who first spoke up. "You are Mr. Rembrandt Brown, one of those who moves between parallel worlds and instigated the problem we are now trying to resolve."

Rembrandt smile was gone. "Hey, I didn't start nothin'. I was the one who got-"

"Enough!" Admiral Paris slammed his hand down on the table. "It's late and everyone is tense. What did you come here for?"

Rembrandt paused as the door closed behind him. "I want to go on the next trip."

Admiral Paris looked him over hard. "Why would you want to do that?"

"I have experience going from world to world. I know the trouble that can happen. I would be good for the team."

"I would like to remind you of the fact that you are just recovering from your injuries and that we don't get a choice in who goes." The admiral folded him arms but kept his eyes on Rembrandt. "But you already knew that. So why'd you really come up here?"

Rembrandt pulled up a chair and sat down. His throbbing leg didn't care about formalities. "I was watching down in the bar." He paused to gather his thoughts. "It was really something seeing all that. Quite a battle. No holds barred mostly."

"And your point?" asked Admiral Ryvid Kriing.

"That's just it. There was no holds barred. They were killing them left and right. Some of them weren't holding anything back."

"The Borg have killed or enslaved entire planets," snapped Admiral Ryvid Kriing. "They are not something you deal with lightly."

"Two of my friends are among them! For all I know they could be on one of those worlds you are sending your gung ho commandos!"

Admiral Paris let out a sigh. "There is not much, if anything, that we can do about that, I'm afraid."

"Bull!" spoke Rembrandt vehemently. "I was speaking to a lady down in the bar and she said they brought a Captain Picard back from the Borg. And that there was a lady on one of the other starships floating out there that also came away from the Borg! So don't tell me it can't be done!"

"Mr. Brown." Admiral McCoy spoke with sadness in his eyes. As a doctor he had had to give many friends and family members news they did not want to hear or accept. "Those incidences were rather extraordinary circumstances. Plus, a great deal of medical work and luck. In truth, we are unable, not unwilling, to deal with the de-programming of a large number of drones. We'd be lucky to do five or six at a time. The medical teams are preparing for that task even as we speak."

The Crying Man was just about ready to live up to his stage name. "But, my friends-"

Ambassador McCoy raised a hand to interrupt him. "Do you have pictures of them?"

"Yeah, sure." Rembrandt reached for his wallet when he realized he didn't have it with him. "I guess I left it in my other pants in the medical area."

"Sickbay. Fine. Get those and we will get everyone a copy. Then if they spot them on one of the trips they can try for a capture."

"Really? You mean they can bring them back?"

McCoy looked grim. "We can try. It would be a long shot if they even land on the same world. It would be an even more of a long shot if they even see one of your friends. The difficult part will be if they can capture your friends without jeopardizing the mission." McCoy looked Rembrandt right in the eye. "The mission will come first. You realize that, don't you."

"Yeah," Rembrandt nodded. "But it's a chance." He stood up and began limping toward the door.

"Mr. Brown."

"Yes, sir?" Rembrandt answered McCoy.

"Have that girl you were talking to in the bar help you get those copies. Another team will most likely be going out real soon."

"Right. Thanks." Rembrandt smiled as he backed to the door which opened to his presence. And immediately bumped into someone. "Oh, sorry, doc. You alright? Gotta go. See ya."

The Doctor picked up his hat off the floor. "How rude. Must be an American."

Admiral Paris frowned. _How are we supposed to get anything done if people keep interrupting us_, he thought. "Can we help you, doctor…?"

"Yes. Thank you. I just came to say that after what I witnessed down on those vids that I most definitely will be one of the members on the next away mission."

To be continued in… **A Tangled Web Part 3: When In Greece…**


End file.
